History in under two hours
Roger Bannister, 1954. Eliud Kipchoge, 2019? Like the sub-four minute mile, running a marathon in less than two hours had seemed impossible - until Saturday in Vienna. But this time there’s an asterisk: Olympic champion Kipchoge performed his feat under conditions so tightly controlled to maximise his success that it won’t appear in the record books.
The 34-year-old Kenyan completed the 42.195km (26.2 miles) in 1hr 59mins 40.2secs at the INEOS 1:59 Challenge, an event set up for the attempt.
Ahead of the event, Kipchoge even compared the feat to being ‘‘like the first man on the moon.’’ Afterward, he drew comparisons to Bannister, the late Briton who 65 years ago became the first athlete to run a mile in under four minutes.
‘‘It is a great feeling to make history in sport after Sir Roger Bannister,’’ Kipchoge said. ‘‘I am the happiest man in the world to be the first human to run under two hours and I can tell people that no human is limited.’’
With all variables tailored to his advantage, it was still the full marathon distance but it was no regular marathon race, which means his jaw-dropping finishing time will not be ratified by IAAF.
Different to an ordinary race, event organisers had set a nineday window to be flexible and stage the run in the best possible weather conditions.
Kipchoge was supported throughout his run by 36 pacemakers who accompanied him in alternating groups, with five athletes running ahead of him in a V-shape and two others closely following.
Unlike a normal race, a timing car just in front of the pack also helped keep the scheduled pace, and was equipped with a laser beam, projecting the ideal position on the road, parts of which also had painted stripes to indicate the optimum running line.
Furthermore, Kipchoge received drinks handed over by a cyclist to prevent him from having to slow down.
Even though his attempt was never meant to set an official world record, Kipchoge was understandably delighted and twice punched his chest in celebration while smiling when he finished.
‘‘That was the best moment of my life,’’ he said, before adding that he trained for months for his extraordinary race against the clock. ‘‘The pressure was very big on my shoulders. I got a phone call from the president of Kenya.’’
Kipchoge said his mission went beyond athletics.
‘‘We can make this world a beautiful world and a peaceful world,’’ he said. ‘‘The positivity of sport. I want to make it a clean sport and an interesting sport.’’
Kipchoge was cheered by thousands along the course in Prater Park and there were celebrations in his home country before he had even finished.
Hundreds of joyous Kenyans brought traffic to a standstill in the middle of the capital, Nairobi, as they gathered to watch the end of the run on a large screen. People pumped their fists, clapped and fell to their knees as Kipchoge cruised to the finish line.
In Kenya’s running mecca of Eldoret, hundreds of people burst on to the streets in celebration.
‘‘We should line up the entire road from the airport to Nairobi. Receive him like the hero he is,’’ prominent activist Boniface Mwangi said on Twitter.
Running at an average pace of 2min 50secs per kilometre (around 4:33 per mile), Kipchoge was 11 seconds ahead of schedule halfway through his run. He maintained his tempo until the pacemakers left him for the final 500 metres, where he sped up.
Organisers said normal antidoping regulations were in place and that Kipchoge and all the pacemakers were being tested in and out of competition by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU).
The team behind the event ‘‘has ensured all athletes involved in the project are undergoing extensive intelligence-led testing that has been pioneered by the partnership between Abbott World Marathon Majors and the AIU,’’ they said in a statement.
It was Kipchoge’s second
‘‘I can tell people that no human is limited.’’ Eliud Kipchoge
attempt at breaking the two-hour barrier, after missing out by 26 seconds at a similar event on the Formula One track in Monza, Italy, in May 2017.
Kipchoge, who took Olympic gold in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 and has won 10 of his 11 marathons, holds the official world record of 2:01:39 since shattering the previous best mark by 78 seconds in Berlin last year.
After missing out on qualification for the 2012 London Olympics on the track, Kipchoge switched to the marathon and has since been pushing the boundaries of the discipline. But he still faces one big challenge to run under two hours in a regular marathon race.