Thirty seconds less. The Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge improved his marathon world record in 2h01’9”, this Sunday in Berlin. The 37-year-old double Olympic champion had already set the previous record in the German capital, where the course is particularly flat, on September 16, 2018 (2h01’39”). Kipchoge then took a minute and 18 seconds off his compatriot Dennis Kimetto’s mark, achieved in 2014 in… Berlin.
An Ethiopian wins in the women’s category
Considered the greatest marathon runner in history, Kipchoge started off on an even higher footing than in 2018, passing the halfway mark in less than an hour (59′ 51”) but he ultimately did not cross the legendary two-hour finish bar near the Brandenburg Gate. “I’m not going to run under two hours in Berlin, I’m just going to have a good race,” he warned.
The Kenyan is the only one to have achieved this feat in 2019 in Vienna, Austria, during an event set up especially for him, but the performance (1h59’41”) had not been approved because he had been helped by 41 hares taking turns in groups every 5 km.
The women’s race was won by Ethiopia’s Tigist Assefa in the third best time in history (2h15’37”).