World marathon champion Eliud Kipchoge sold his INEOS Challenge photos taken in Vienna, Austria for Ksh3 million on Thursday.
He sold the images as Non-Fungible Token (NFTs) in the auction that ended on April 8.
The photos have a signature in form of a code which acts as the all-time authenticating mark in case of theft. It uses what is known as blockchain technology to embed the unique code.
Art dealers have been using blockchain technology to wade off unscrupulous dealers who often dupe clients with counterfeits.
In the NFT auction held at OpenSea, only the winner will stand as the verified owner.
On the final day of the auction, NFT was supported by Momentible, an entity that gives celebrities such as musicians and athletes a platform to immortalize their life and times through and NFT.
Besides the Kipchoge’s photo, the winner will also get a customized video from the Kenyan marathoner.
On April 3, Kipchoge announced that he would be immortalizing his greatest moment on the tracks through an NFT.
He said that he wanted to inspire someone through his artwork.
“In my career, I have always been interested in technology and therefore it fits me well to present my special sports memories on the block chain. I trust that it will help someone around the world to get these positive memories as it has done for me,” Kipchoge said on Momentible.
In the INEOS Challenge held in October 2019, Kipchoge became the first human to run a 42-kilometre marathon in less than two hours; he clocked 1:59.
Before the 2019 INEOS Challenge, Kipchoge had broken the world marathon record clocking 2:01:39 at the Berlin marathon in 2018.
With his photos sold, he joins a group of other renowned icons in the world who have immortalized their works as an NFT.
Jack Dorsey, Twitter CEO sold his first tweet for Ksh312 million recently which he said that he would donate to charity.
