Kipchoge also had his own news conference on Friday after the traditional pre-race scrum where the other elite athletes were distributed around tables in a hotel ballroom. “I don’t mind about time,” he said, “but I will try to win.”ĭuring a training run along the Charles River this week, gawkers were shocked to see a world-class athlete in their midst. The Kenyan is unique.He said he knows it is not a course that lends itself to fast times, and he would be quite satisfied to win a slower and more tactical race. But over the past few years, Kipchoge has made it abundantly clear he is not restricted by the body’s limitations imposed on the rest of the world. Humans are not supposed to do this type of thing. His incredible winning time of 2hr 1min 39sec was a full 78 seconds better than the previous mark – the first time the world record had been lowered by more than a minute in a race for 39 years and the single greatest improvement for 51 years. Put it so far out of reach it is difficult to envisage anyone surpassing it for years to come. Kipchoge, 33, did not just beat it, he destroyed it.
On a glorious Sunday morning in Berlin, the greatest marathon runner of all time became that bit greater.Īlready the winner of his past eight marathons – including Olympic gold and three victories in London – the only thing to have eluded Kipchoge was Dennis Kimetto’s world record of two hours, two minutes and 57 seconds set in the German capital in 2014. To the likes of Bob Beamon and Usain Bolt, we can now add Eliud Kipchoge – athletes whose feats are so unthinkable, so incomprehensible, that they are hard to fathom.
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