KOSGEI AND KIPCHOGE MARK MOMENTOUS WEEKEND OF ROAD RUNNING
Two days, two 42.195km runs, two barriers broken – but two very different circumstances.
On Saturday morning in Vienna, Olympic champion Eliud Kipchoge produced the fastest time ever for the marathon distance with a 1:59:40.2 clocking at the Ineos159 Challenge, an unofficial time trial event that had been orchestrated to see if a human was capable of covering the marathon distance within two hours.
About 30 hours later, fellow Kenyan Brigid Kosgei crossed the finish line at the Bank of America Chicago Marathon in 2:14:04, taking 81 seconds off the longest-standing marathon world record – men’s or women’s – in the modern era.
“I can tell people that no human is limited,” said Kipchoge after his run. “It shows the positivity of sport. I want to make the sport an interesting sport whereby all human beings can run and together we can make this world a beautiful world.”