Under two-hour marathon a reality

NO man has ever run a marathon under two hours.

The closest to the two-hour mark in a road race was 2:02:57, a blistering world record by Dennis Kimetto of Kenya at Berlin Marathon in 2014.

More recently in May, under experimental conditions, Kenyan top athlete Eliud Kipchoge attempted to break the twohour barrier at the Monza National Autodrome racing circuit in Italy but came in at 2:00:25. Kipchoge’s attempt, backed by sportswear giant Nike, was the brainchild of Yannis Pitsiladis, a professor at the University of Brighton in the UK, and it showed it was, maybe, possible for a human to run 42.2km in under two hours.

On Tuesday, Pitsiladis, who has partnered with the UCT division of Exercise Science and Sports Medicine and the Sports Science Institute of South Africa ( SSISA), will launch an African version of the Sub2-hr marathon attempt in Newlands.

According to SSISA, the Sub2-hr Project was officially launched at a Sports Science congress in Newcastle, UK, in December 2015 sparked by questions raised over the current top marathon perform- ances and possible doping. The project was initiated to show athletes could achieve fast times without resorting to doping but with sports science intervention.

Although the date for the experiment run has not yet been set, one of the project leaders, Andrew Bosch, said plans were on track.

“There is no date set as yet. There is still much work to be done, including implementation of the strategy to attempt sub two hours,” Bosch said.

Planning involves finding the ideal athletes and the perfect grounds for the experiment. “We have considered a number of locations. It has to be a course that is flat, cold (10-12ºC), wind-free, with few sharp corners, and one where there could be good crowd support,” he said.

Asked about potential athletes, Bosch said no South Africans had been identified but Ethiopian-born Kenenisa Bekele was key.

Bekele’s marathon best time is his 2:03:03 win at the Berlin Marathon last year, a few seconds behind the world record of 2:02:57 held by Kipchoge on the same route.

“Our key athlete is the world-record holder over 5 000 and 10 000m, Kenenisa Bekele,” Bosch said.

He said the project was divided into several phases including recruiting athletes and obtaining the finances to apply phase two.

“The final phase, the foundation of which has already been started, is a legacy phase in which centres of excellence will be established to assist young athletes in achieving excellence,” said Bosch.

Expected to speak at the launch on Tuesday evening are sports nutritionist Tim Noakes and project leaders Pitsiladis and Bosch and there will be a video message by Bekele.

noloyiso.mtembu@inl.co.za

PICTURE: AP Ethiopian athlete Kenenisa Bekele has been identified as a key athlete in the Sub2-hr Marathon Project in Africa.