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Berlin (AFP) – The 37-year-old Kenyan set a new marathon world record, but failed to break the 2-hour feat.
At 37, double Olympic champion Eliud Kipchoge set a new marathon world record. It was in Germany that he completed the race in 2 hours, 1 minute and 9 seconds. He therefore arrives in the lead ahead of another Kenyan, Mark Korir (2h05:58) and the Ethiopian Tadu Abate (2h06:28).
Mr. Kipchoge had set the previous record also in the German capital, where the course is particularly flat, on September 16, 2018 (2h01:39).
Considered as the greatest marathon runner in history, the Kenyan had started on an even higher footing. He arrived at the halfway point in less than an hour (59 min 51 sec), giving hope that he could pull off the feat of going under the 2 hour mark. But he ultimately did not cross this threshold on arrival near the Brandenburg Gate.
He is the only one to have achieved this feat in 2019 in Vienna, during an event set up especially for him, but the performance (1h 59 min 41 sec) had not been approved because he had been helped by 41 “hares” who took turns in groups every 5 km.
Prior to the Berlin Marathon, Kipchoge had played down his chances of falling below that threshold. ” I’m not going to run under two hours in Berlin, I’m only going to have a good run he had said.
On the women’s side, the women’s race was won by Ethiopian Tigist Assefa in the third fastest time in history (2:15:37). She was thus ahead of Kenyan Rosemary Wanjiru, who clocked 2h18:00, and another Ethiopian, Tigist Abayechew (2h18:03).
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