I want to make it a clean and interesting sport. I've tried but I've done it,' said the Kenyan.

After Roger Bannister made history, it took me another 65 years. Kipchoge, who compared the feat to being the first man on the moon in build-up to the event, said he had made history just as Britain's Sir Roger Bannister did in running the first sub four-minute mile in 1954. The four-time London Marathon winner embraced his wife Grace, grabbed a Kenyan flag and was mobbed by his pacemakers, including many of the world's best middle and long-distance runners. Knowing he was about to make history on the home straight, the pacemakers dropped back to let Kipchoge sprint over the line alone, roared on by a large crowd in the Austrian capital. The result wasn't official because he ran it under laboratory conditions, but the result made him an icon in and outside the running world.The Olympic champion - who holds the official marathon world record of 2:01:39, set in Berlin, Germany in 2018 - missed out by 25 seconds in a previous attempt at the Italian Grand Prix circuit at Monza in 2017. In 2019, he ran a marathon in Vienna in under two hours, a milestone long thought impossible. Kipchoge has long been dubbed the world's best marathon runner. The men's record has now been set eight times in a row in Berlin, favored by runners for its flat course. Kipchoge and Assefa's combined time of 4:16:46 ensured the marathon was the fastest ever. 'I wasn't afraid of my rivals, even though they had faster times than me,' the 26-year-old Assefa said. I'm so happy to break the world record.'Įthiopia's Tigist Assefa unexpectedly won the women's race in a course record of 2:15:37 – 18 minutes faster than she had ever run before. 'But the most important thing is my mind, and that also feels fresh and young.

'My legs and my body still feel young,' the 37-year-old Kipchoge said. Kenya's Eliud Kipchoge crosses the line to win the Berlin Marathon in Berlin on Sunday.īERLIN - Kenyan runner Eliud Kipchoge shaved 30 seconds off his previous world record set on the same course four years ago to finish the Berlin Marathon in 2:01:09 on Sunday.

Download eliud kipchoge running