Kipchoge will defend Olympic title — if picked

Eliud Kipchoge, the greatest marathon runner in history, the world record holder and the only man to go under 2hr for the distance, has told Reuters he will defend his Olympic title in Tokyo in 2020 — if selected.

It should be reasonably safe to assume, even taking into account the often chaotic and inexplicable selection procedures that have long dogged Kenyan athletics, that Kipchoge will be given the chance to run next August.

“If selected I will be there,” he said on Tuesday.

“It [Tokyo] is at the front of my mind, and I trust and believe that when the time comes I will be on the starting line.”

That line will now be in the northern city of Sapporo, where the marathons and walking events have been moved by the International Olympic Committee in a bid to avoid the worst of the debilitating heat and humidity of the Tokyo area.

But Kipchoge, as ever, was careful not to voice a strong opinion on the issue. “I think the medals are the same,” he said. “I will be among the competitors.”

Kipchoge has won 11 of his 12 official marathons, including the 2016 Rio Olympics, and with the world record and the sub-2hr mark under his belt, along with a string of lucrative big-city races, he is a colossus of his sport.

However, there are a growing number of critics who say that his and others’ recordbreaking times should be treated with a grain of salt, such is the benefit available from the latest running shoes.

Kipchoge became the first man to run a marathon under two hours in October and also set the official world record for the distance of 2:01.39 in Berlin in 2018 — both performances helped by controversial prototypes of his Nike shoes.

The shoes have carbon-fibre plates and a thicker midsole, which the manufacturers claim improve running economy by 4% or 5%.