Eliud Kipchoge, the latest and most formidable in a long line of distinguished Kenyan distance runners, is considered by many to be the world’s greatest marathon runner.
In 2019 he became the first to run a marathon in less than two hours. This took place in a special event in Vienna, so the time of 1hr 59mins 40secs does not count as an official world record as it was not in open competition.
However Kipchoge’s earlier time, run in September 2018 in Berlin, is the current world record and also one of the greatest feats in history. His 2hrs 1min 39secs broke the previous record by 78 seconds, the biggest improvement on the record in 51 years.
The son of a farmer, young Eliud would run two miles to his school every morning, while his classmates walked. Living in a mountain village close to the equator, the young man thought little of this high-intensity altitude running but it proved to become a key part of his running DNA.
He began his career as a 5,000 metres specialist. At the age of 18, in 2003, he became world champion in Paris, then followed this with a bronze medal in the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens and a silver in Beijing in 2008. He also took silver in the 2007 World Championships in Osaka.
His switch to road running in 2012 took him on to an even bigger stage. He was World Marathon Major Series champion in four straight years from 2016 and won the London Marathon a record four times. One of the highlights for him was his Olympic marathon gold medal in Rio de Janeiro in 2016.
