Kipchoge falls 26 seconds short of first sub 2-hour marathon

Considered the best marathon runner in the world, Kipchoge broke his personal best of 2:03:05 set at the London Marathon last year. Kimetto set the world mark in Berlin in 2014.

Organizers first listed Kipchoge’s time as a second faster, then changed it to 25 seconds off the two-hour mark.

“I rank this as the highest-ever performance in my life,” Kipchoge said. “The aim of ‘Breaking2’ was to pass the message that running less than two-hour marathon is possible. That message is really special to me.”

It wasn’t a road race, with runners completing 17.5 laps around the 1.5-mile Monza Formula One track. The attempt was held on the 63rd anniversary of Roger Bannister breaking the four-minute mile in 1954.

Nike planned the record attempt for three years, including making shoes it said made runners four per cent more efficient. The Monza track was selected after extensive research that included average temperature, air pressure, and wind levels.

Two-time Boston Marathon winner Lelisa Desisa, from Ethiopia, and half-marathon world-record holder Zersenay Tadese of Eritrea were also part of the attempt, which started at 5:45 a.m. local time. They tried to help pace Kipchoge.

Desisa was dropped after 50 minutes, with Tadese falling back shortly afterwards. The duo still completed the marathon with Tadese shaving nearly four minutes off his personal best in 2:06:51. Desisa finished in 2:14:10.

That left just Kipchoge chasing the landmark time.

He passed the halfway mark in 59:54, but his average pace of 4:36 per mile was not quite enough, despite a final sprint to the tape.

Kipchoge needed an average of less than 4:35 per mile — an improvement of about seven seconds per mile on Kimetto’s record, or around 2.5 per cent.

“I tried to maintain the pace,” Kipchoge said. “As a human you are not a machine so you cannot go 2.50 exactly, and those micro-seconds really have an effect.”

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This story has been corrected to show that Kipchoge’s time was 2 hours, 25 seconds, after a change by organizers.

Daniella Matar, The Associated Press

by Canadian Press

Kipchoge falls 26 seconds short of first sub 2-hour marathon

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