Olympic champion Eliud Kipchoge has smashed the world marathon record. The 33-year-old delivered a stunning performance to win the BMW Berlin Marathon with a time of 2:01:39.
At his training camp in Kenya, where Eliud Kipchoge takes his turn to clean out the toilets and draw water from the nearby well, his fellow athletes call him “the boss man”. And on a pleasant autumn day in Berlin, the 33-year-old lived up to that billing - and more - as he proved beyond doubt that he is the greatest long-distance runner in history by obliterating the marathon world record. Kipchoge’s time of 2 hours 01 minute and 39 seconds was staggering enough, given it took one minute and 18 seconds off the previous world record, set four years ago by Dennis Kimetto. But what more it more impressive still was the fact that Kipchoge had to run the last 17 kilometres (10.5 miles) alone after his pacemakers dropped out early.
He took over a minute off the previous best time which was set by fellow Kenyan Dennis Kimetto in 2014."I lack the words to describe how I feel," said Kipchoge, who won the London Marathon for a third time earlier this year."It was really hard [during the last 17 kilometres] but I was truly prepared to run my own race."I had to focus on the work I had put in in Kenya and that is what helped push me. I’m really grateful to my coaching team, my management, the organisation."Kipchoge became the Olympic champion in Rio 2016 but the world record had eluded him before the event in Berlin. .Last year he also attempted an audacious yet controversial attempt to shatter the two-hour barrier for the marathon, running 2:00:25 on the Monza F1 track with the help of a phalanx of 30 elite pacers, which was against the official rules of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF). This performance had all the audacity of that run, without any of the controversies. It will go down as Kipchoge’s crowning glory, his marathon opus. His record could well stand for a generation. He is regarded as one of the greatest marathon runners of all time and the latest performance cements his place further.
