Kipchoge breaks his own marathon world record by 30 seconds
THE limits of athletic endurance continue to be redefined by Eliud Kipchoge. That he is 37 years old is no obvious barrier to a double Olympic champion who on Sunday smashed his own marathon world record and then insisted he can still get quicker.
His 26.2-mile run of two hours, one minute and nine seconds in Berlin was extraordinary, given he slashed an enormous 30sec off the record he set in the same city in 2018, having spent half of the race on course to go under two hours. The debate around the greatest marathon runner of all time has long been settled in his favour, but with 15 wins from 17 career races at the distance the Kenyan has transcended athletics to compile one of the most impressive bodies of work in all of sport.
Despite his age, Kipchoge believes he can still get faster, saying: ‘There is still more in my legs and I still have a future career. My mind is still moving and the body is still absorbing the training. No limitations.’ That has been Kipchoge’s mantra for some time, and of late the proving ground has tended to be in races against the clock in the absence of reliable opposition on two legs. Famously, he ran under two hours in Vienna in 2019, though that was not recognised as an official world record because he used rotating pacemakers and benefited from other technical advantages.
In Berlin, on a notoriously quick circuit in overcast conditions, Kipchoge appeared determined to crash through the same two-hour barrier and for a time he was hitting the checkpoints at absurd speed. He covered the first 10km in just 28min 23sec and hit halfway in 59.51 — the fastest split for a marathon in history. With a third of the race remaining, he dropped his last remaining rival, Andamlak Belihu, but Kipchoge wilted in the final few miles.
While his times have been assisted by his Nike Alphafly footwear, as have all athletes at the elite end of the sport, his position relative to the rest was underscored by a margin of almost five minutes on the secondplaced runner, Kenya’s Mark Korir. Kipchoge said: ‘What motivates me is my family and I want to inspire young people. I will celebrate this record and just roll and see what happens (in the future).’ Harder to forecast was the winner of the women’s race, which was claimed by Ethiopia’s Tigist Assefa in 2:15.37 — the third fastest time in history. Assefa took an incredible 18 minutes off her personal best.