Kipchoge falls 26 seconds short of 1st sub 2-hour marathon

Athletics

Eliud Kipchoge was 26 seconds from making history yesterday but the Olympic champion finished just short of becoming the first person to run a marathon in less than two hours.

Kipchoge ran the 26.2 miles (42.2 kilometres) in an impressive 2 hours, 25 seconds, smashing Dennis Kimetto’s world mark of 2:02:57 by 2 1/2 minutes and raising hopes that one of world sport’s most famous barriers can be broken.

“We are human,” Kipchoge said. “I am happy that I’ve reduced by 2 1/2 minutes the world record.”

Kipchoge did break his personal best time of 2:03:05, which was set at the London Marathon last year.

Organisers first listed his time as a second faster, then changed it to 25 seconds off the 2-hour mark.

The attempt at Monza’s Formula One race course did not go down as an official world record, sanctioned by the IAAF, due to variables like pacers entering mid-race and drinks being given to runners via mopeds.

And, after three years of planning, Nike’s audacious attempt at breaking the two-hour barrier remained just that, despite the aid of a shoe that designers say will make runners four percent more efficient.

The 32-year-old passed the halfway mark in 59:54, but his average pace of 4:36 per mile was just not enough, despite his final sprint to the tape.

Kipchoge would have needed an average of less than 4:35 per mile - an improvement of about seven seconds per mile on Kimetto’s record, or around 2.5 per cent.

“I tried to maintain the pace,” he said. “As a human you are not a machine so you cannot go 2.50 exactly, and those micro-seconds really have an effect.”