Eliud Kipchoge walked a fine line between recklessness and genius as he broke his own marathon world record by 30 seconds with another extraordinary display in Berlin.
The two-time Olympic champion looked as composed as can be after 26.2 miles of hard work, crossing the line in 2hr 1min 9sec to beat his previous best of four years ago. For good measure, the 37-year-old Kenyan also beat runner-up Mark Korir by nearly five minutes.
However, at one point Kipchoge, wearing a bib that read ‘Impossible is Nothing’, looked set to go even faster as he covered the first 10km of the race in just 28min 23sec, a time that would have placed 18th. of 25 athletes in the Olympic men’s 10,000 m final in Tokyo, before passing the halfway mark in 59.51.
No one has ever run 13.1 miles that fast in a marathon, and the fear among some spectators was that by attempting to run an official sub-two marathon, Kipchoge risked exploding. However, although he slowed slightly once his pacemakers dropped out, it was only in the latter stages of the race that the early pace told.
With four miles remaining, he was still more than a minute off his previous world record, but that was cut to 30 seconds as he passed the Brandenburg Gate and crossed the line. Still, it was an amazing performance from an amazing athlete.
Afterwards, Kipchoge said: “Without limitations, after 38k I knew I would be able to break the world record. The circumstances were excellent, and so was the organization of the event. When asked if he would attempt a race of less than two hours in Berlin next year, Kipchoge replied: “Let’s plan another day. I’m going to celebrate this record and I have to figure out what happens. Just roll around and see what happens.”
Not only has Kipchoge now won 15 of the 17 official marathons he has run, he is also one of only three men to defend an Olympic marathon title, along with Ethiopian barefoot Abebe Bikila in 1960 and 1964 and Germany eastern Waldemar Cierpinski in 1976. and 1980.
Ethiopia’s Tigist Assefa crosses the line first in Berlin. Photograph: Fabrizio Bensch/Reuters
Before that he was also the 5,000m world champion in 2003, and won Olympic bronze and silver in the 5,000m in 2004 and 2008 respectively. In any discussion of who is the greatest distance athlete of all time, Kipchoge has to be in the conversation. Many would argue that he should lead it.
Kipchoge also, of course, has a sub-two-hour marathon in Vienna in 2019 on his resume. However, that time of 1:59.40 did not count as an official record, as it was aided by a phalanx of pacers coming in and out, as well as other modifications not permitted by World Athletics rules.
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The women’s race was won by Ethiopia’s Tigist Assefa in 2:15.37, the third fastest time ever behind only Brigid Kosgei and Paula Radcliffe.
What made the 28-year-old’s performance all the more impressive was that she had only run a marathon before, in 2:34, although she has run a half marathon in a respectable 67:28.
Assefa, who ran the 800 meters at the Rio Olympics in 2016, also became the first woman in history to break two minutes for the 800 meters and 2:20 for the marathon.