The Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) has promoted Joyciline Jepkosgei after she finished in second place at the prestigious London Marathon on Sunday.

Jepkosgei was moved from the rank of Corporal to that of Sergeant in a ceremony held at the KDF headquarters in Nairobi and led by Chief of Defence Forces General Robert Kibochi.

She was defending her title at the London marathon and clocked 2:18:07 to clinch her second-place spot behind Ethiopia’s Yalemzerf Yehualaw who finished at 2:17:25.

Jepkosgei, 28, left her most memorable international mark in 2019 after bagging both the New York half-marathon and marathon clocking in at 1:10:07 and 2:22:38 respectively.

Later in 2021, she also brought home another gold at the London Marathon and in the process improved her New York time with five minutes by finishing the race at 2:17:43.

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The Sergeant carried the Kenyan flag at the Prague Half-Marathon in 2017 where she broke the world record to become the first woman to finish the race under 65 minutes at 64:52.

She decorated her medals shelf by bagging a bronze at the African Championships in South Africa in 2016 and later a silver medal at the World Half-Marathon Championships in Spain.

Other top KDF officials who witnessed her promotion included Kenya Army Commander, Lieutenant General Peter Njiru; Assistant Chief of Defence Forces in charge of Personnel and Logistics, Major General Muthuri Kiugu.