Kenyan Kipchoge shatters marathon world record

BERLIN (Reuters) – Kenya’s Olympic champion Eliud Kipchoge pulverized the marathon world record with a blistering run on Sunday, to shave off a staggering 78 seconds off the previous best and land the one major running crown that had eluded him.

The 33-year-old, widely seen as the greatest marathon runner of the modern era, ran an official time of time of two hours, one minute and 39 seconds on a sunny autumn day along the flat inner-city course to smash Dennis Kimetto’s 2:02:57.

Kimetto’s record had stood since the Kenyan set it at the same course in 2014, but Kipchoge’s run will likely take some time to break as it is the biggest improvement on the marathon record since Australian Derek Clayton shaved almost two and a half minutes off the record in 1967.

“I lack words to describe this day,” said Kipchoge, a former world champion over 5,000 meters and marathon gold medalist at the Rio Olympics in 2016.

“They say you can miss it twice but not third time. So I want to thank everyone who has helped me,” said Kipchoge, who had won in Berlin in 2016 and 2017.

Berlin has now been the stage for the last six men’s world records over the distance.

Since debuting in the event in Hamburg in 2013, Kipchoge has won World Marathon Majors series runs in Chicago (2014), Berlin (2015 and 2017) and London (2015, 2016 and 2018).

He has now won 11 out of 12 marathons he raced in.