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Kenya's Eliud Kipchoge wins Berlin Marathon, betters own world record

Eliud Kipchoge of Kenya has sprinted to victory at the Berlin Marathon on Sunday, shattering his own record and lowering it to 2:01:09.

By ET Spotlight Special |
Agencies
Eliud Kipchoge ran at a pace that no one could match over the entire 26.2 miles to win his 15th career marathon out of just 17 starts, shaving 30 seconds off the record he set in the same race four years earlier.

Guye Adola, the defending champion, and Andamlak Belihu of Ethiopia kept up with the 37-year-old for the first half of the race before losing out to Kipchoge as he kept pushing towards victory. Kipchoge eventually crossed the finish line in front of the Brandenburg Gate.

In Vienna in 2019, double Olympic champion Kipchoge became the very first athlete to complete a marathon in under two hours, but this achievement was not recognised as a world record because it was accomplished without an open competition and with the aid of a team of alternating pacemakers.


Kipchoge got off to a quick start for this official record, clocking a 10-kilometer time split in just 28 minutes and 23 seconds and finishing in under an hour.


The Miles That Made Milestones: Running Records Set By Eliud Kipchoge, Sergey Bubka
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Eliud Kipchoge’s two-hour marathon run won’t count as an official record. But it was the first time a human achieved the feat. Here are some other landmarks from track and field events.



(Image: AP)

Eliud Kipchoge’s two-hour marathon run won’t count as an official record. But it was the first time a human achieved the feat. Here are some other landmarks from track and field events.(Image: AP)
Though it’s Bob Hayes who’s credited with running the first 100-metre dash in under 10 seconds — a 9.9 second sprint in 1963, this too was an unofficial timing. Hayes, who also broke the official world record at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, held the record for four years before fellow American runner Jim Hines improved it.

At the 1968 Mexico Olympics, Arkansas boy Hines ran 100 metres in 9.95 seconds, making it the new world record and the first time the 10-second mark was officially breached. Today, the record belongs to Usain Bolt who’s himself broken the record thrice, lowering it from 9.74s to 9.58s, which he ran at the world championships in Berlin in 2009.

(Image: AFP)
Though it’s Bob Hayes who’s credited with running the first 100-metre dash in under 10 seconds — a 9.9 second sprint in 1963, this too was an unofficial timing. Hayes, who also broke the official wor..
Read More
In pole vault, a height ceiling of six metres (19 feet) was considered unattainable. Until Ukraine’s Sergey Bubka came along, setting numerous world records. In July 1985, he became the first man to clear six metres in Paris, while three years later, in 1988, he managed 6.06 metres. Between 1984 and 1988, Bubka had raised the world record by 21 centimetres, a greater gain in four years than what had been achieved in the previous 12. He continued breaking his own records until 1994, when he jumped 6.14 metres. This would stand for over 20 years, until 2014, when Frenchman Renaud Lavillenie jumped 6.16 metres, incidentally in Bubka’s native Donetsk, with the 51-year-old in attendance.
In pole vault, a height ceiling of six metres (19 feet) was considered unattainable. Until Ukraine’s Sergey Bubka came along, setting numerous world records. In July 1985, he became the first man to ..
Read More
Kenyan runner Kipchoge last month became the first person to run a 42-kilometre marathon in under two hours, after he completed the distance in 1:59:40. This is considered among the most enduring of long-distance running accomplishments. To put this timing in perspective, he ran at an average speed of 4.35 minutes for a mile. And kept doing it over 26 times. However, the timing wouldn’t be counted as official. The event wasn’t a competition, and was held for Kipchoge alone. In addition, he was also assisted by a team of runners (pacekeepers). What time he might have run had it not been for them is anybody’s guess. However, the official world record for the fastest marathon does belong to the same Eliud Kipchoge, a 2:01:39 time he set at the 2018 Berlin Marathon.

(Image: AFP)
Kenyan runner Kipchoge last month became the first person to run a 42-kilometre marathon in under two hours, after he completed the distance in 1:59:40. This is considered among the most enduring of ..
Read More
The mile isn’t often considered in today’s metric athletics world as a unit denoting athletic supremacy, but it wasn’t always so. In the 1950s, the mile (1,600 metres) was considered the pinnacle and to run it under four minutes was considered nigh impossible.

Briton Roger Bannister, who had come fourth in the 1952 Olympics in the 1,500 metre run, got there first. He ran in 3:59.4, to break the world record at Iffley Road in Oxford and shatter the psychological ceiling. Six weeks later, John Landy brought it down to 3:58.0. By the end of the decade, it was down to 3:54.5, while the current record stands at 3:43.13, set by Hicham El Guerrouj in 1999.
The mile isn’t often considered in today’s metric athletics world as a unit denoting athletic supremacy, but it wasn’t always so. In the 1950s, the mile (1,600 metres) was considered the pinnacle and..
Read More
On the women’s side of the draw, the 11-second mark for the 100-metre dash was considered unbreakable until as recently as 1973. It was East German sprinter Stecher who became the first woman to run a 10.9 second race. However, several of Stecher’s records would later come under a cloud, after it was revealed that East Germany conducted a statesponsored drug programme.

In fact, the drug menace would continue to plague women’s 100-metre running, as subsequent record holder Florence Griffith Joyner also faced doping allegations.

(Image: www.amazon.com)
On the women’s side of the draw, the 11-second mark for the 100-metre dash was considered unbreakable until as recently as 1973. It was East German sprinter Stecher who became the first woman to run ..
Read More
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Adola battled him step for step for the first 10 kilometres, but by the halfway point of the race, only Belihu was able to keep up with Kipchoge.

After 25 kilometres, Kipchoge started to distance himself from Belihu as well. Despite a minor slowdown in his blistering pace, he maintained a comfortable lead over him all the way to the finish line.

After switching from the 800m to the marathon, Assefa ran 1:08:13 to stay with the pack for the first half of the race before clocking a negative split of 1:07:25 to pull away from the rest.

Kenyan Rosemary Wanjiru came in second with a timing of 2:18:00, and Tigist Abayechew of Ethiopia came in third three seconds later.

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Related FAQs


  1. What record did Kipchoge set in Vienna?
    In Vienna in 2019, double Olympic champion Kipchoge became the very first athlete to complete a marathon in under two hours.
  2. Why was that achievement not recognised as world record?
    This achievement was not recognised as a world record because it was accomplished without an open competition and with the aid of a team of alternating pacemakers.
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Berlin Marathon |eliud kipchoge |kipchoge |guye adola |andamlak belihu |kenyan rosemary wanjiru |vienna |belihu |berlin |marathon

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