Kipchoge join the immortals with Berlin marathon record
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 and quantify.
On a glorious Sunday morning in Berlin, the greatest marathon runner of all time became that bit greater.
Already 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.
Kipchoge, 33, did not just beat it, he destroyed it. Shattered it. Put it so far out of reach it is difficult to envisage anyone surpassing it for years to come.
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.
Humans are not supposed to do this type of thing. But over the past few years, Kipchoge has made it clear he is not restricted by the body limitations imposed on the rest of the world.
Even for those considered the greatest in history, marathon world records are not broken without favourable conditions and the weather in Berlin was near perfect.
Pre-race talk focused on the battle between Kipchoge and Wilson Kipsang, but that head-to-head was over before it had even begun.
Kipchoge had already pulled clear at 5km and by the halfway stage the margin from first to second was already more than a minute. Kipchoge’s time at that point was 61min 6sec and he was running at such speed that two of the three pacemakers employed to help him on his world record quest had been forced to drop out.
Only one remained, but he could manage just 10 more minutes before also falling by the wayside – something that Kipchoge later shrugged off as “unfortunate”. That left him more than 10 miles to run solo, just one man against the clock.
Which is when the incredible happened: he sped up. Running as though the pacemakers had been holding him back, Kipchoge completed the second half of the race in a barely conceivable 60min 33sec.
Still full of beans as he was roared through the Brandenburg Gate, the famed smile of his appeared and the celebrations were worthy of his astonishing achievement, punching the air while sprinting up and down beyond the finish line.
For context, his winning time was the equivalent of running every 100m in 17.3sec, 800m in 2min 18.39sec, or 5km in 14min 24.91sec. Think of that next time you head out for a morning run. (© Daily Telegraph, London)