Kenyan runner Eliud Kipchoge smashed the marathon world record in Berlin on Sunday, beating the previous best set by Dennis Kimetto in 2014 by one minute and 18 seconds. The 33-year-old broke the world record by the biggest margin since Derek Clayton beat it by two minutes and 24 seconds in 1967. Kipchoge’s time was two hours, one minute and 39 seconds.
“It was hard,” Kipchoge said. “I am just so incredibly happy to have finally run the world record as I never stopped having belief in myself.” Kipchoge was able to make the record with limited use of pacemakers, people who swap in for the runner in different intervals. He ran solo for the last 17 kms of the race after his pacemakers dropped out much earlier than expected.
Kipchoge’s world record is a victory 15 years in the making. The Kenyan first tasted gold at the 2003 world championships over 5,000 metres when he was 18, then claimed silver and bronze medals at the 2004 and 2008 Olympics, respectively. Since moving to the marathon in 2012, Kipchoge was won 10 of 11 races over 26.2 miles, including gold in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics.
He is regarded as one of the greatest marathon runners of all time and is referred to as “the boss man” by his fellow athletes in Kenya. In 2017, he lost out on becoming the first athlete to run the marathon under two hours by 26 seconds, but it was not considered a world record because he was helped by a team of 30 pacemakers.
Initially all went to plan as Kipchoge passed the 10km mark in 29:21 – 22sec inside world-record pace. But shortly after 15km two of the three pacemakers were suddenly unable to continue. The third, Josphat Boit, dropped out at 25km. The Kenyan had gone through halfway in 1hr 01 min 06sec. But now he was alone and his hopes of shattering the record appeared to be in the balance. Yet it transpired that his pacemakers had been holding him back: Kipchoge ran the second half in 60min 34sec – or 4min 37sec per mile.
After that most mortals would have slumped over the line. However, Kipchoge still had enough energy to leap into the arms of his coach and mentor, Patrick Sang, a former steeplechaser who provided him with his first training plan as a teenager. It has been some journey for both of them since.
