Add Category
Updated
Two hours. It is the elusive barrier no marathon runner has been able to break over the distance of 42,195 metres — more than 42 kilometres or 26 miles.
Now, Kenya's Eliud Kipchoge is more than a step closer to that mark after he smashed the marathon world record in Berlin by 78 seconds.
The world record now stands at two hours, one minute and 39 seconds. And the Olympic champion's next target is to break the magical two-hour barrier.
"He is just head and shoulders above anyone else in the world … I can't see anyone else doing it but I can certainly see him doing it," Australian marathon great Robert de Castella said.
De Castella should know. Until recently, the 1983 world champion and two-time Commonwealth Games gold medallist — who once held the world record (2:08.18) in the early 1980s — did not think a sub two-hour run was possible.
The world record has steadily fallen during the last decade but never by a time as dramatically as one minute and 18 seconds, which is why Kipchoge's most recent performance provides de Castella with cause for optimism.
"Looking at his splits, he was getting faster," de Castella said.
"His last 10 kilometres was his fastest, so he's showing no sign of fatigue or exhaustion as the marathon goes on. He's a superhuman athlete."
Kipchoge the best chance to go under two hours
Kipchoge, at 33 years of age, still has time on his side when it comes to dipping under two hours, but de Castella says he will need to beat the mark within the next couple of years.
"I would've thought that it wasn't attainable — and I'd never see it in my life — but I think there's every likelihood that we will, and I can't see anyone else doing it, at this stage," he said.
"If he can stay injury free and maintain the form that he's demonstrated, he's just getting faster and faster."
No two marathon courses are the same and they are governed by specifications, such as gradient, when it comes to verifying the times set by the runners.
Berlin has a history of producing records because of the course layout, as it is relatively flat, while weather conditions can also play a role in helping post quick times.
The last seven occasions the world record has been broken in the men's marathon, they have all occurred in the German capital, with Kenyan and Ethiopian athletes responsible for each.
This year Kipchoge did not just win in Berlin, he dominated the race.
"He was nearly five minutes in front … it's just a demonstration of how far he is in front of the rest of the world," said de Castella, who twice managed top-eight finishes at the Olympics.
"That's the way to run a fast time, you don't want to have someone on your shoulder for the last 10 kilometres to go because that's when it becomes a technical race.
"He was just running against the clock, so he could afford to give it absolutely everything, knowing he doesn't have to save himself for a sprint finish."
De Castella hopeful Kipchoge will inspire others
De Castella, who is the director of the Indigenous Marathon Foundation in Australia, is confident Kipchoge's stunning run in Germany will inspire athletes in his homeland of Kenya and beyond.
"The fact that he's been consistently the best for a number of years tends to give one a lot of confidence that there's no funny business going on, and that's a really good thing for the sport," de Castella said.
"The technology and the training, all of the things which have allowed him to do this, will now become mainstream."
And, in doing so, the prospect of an athlete running a sub two-hour marathon might now have shifted from improbable to possible.
Topics: sport, athletics, germany, kenya
First posted