Eliud Kipchoge, born to run, born to win

Eliud Kipchoge It is part of sports history. All despite that fact 38 years, aims not to say his last word on the planet marathon. In it he broke barriers, broke records and crossed boundaries that made him worthy of consideration one of the best athletes in history, the best marathon runner ever and, this 2023, winner of Princess of Asturias Award for Sports 2023.

It all started less than four decades ago in the Kenyan district of come on. A young Eliud, raised by his mother in a poor family, has to travel several kilometers every day to get to school. Every day he got faster, until, when he was sixteen, he was finally discovered by patrick sangwho suggested that he train to become a professional athlete.

It was the year 2001. A year later, in 2002, Kipchoge, who specializes in 5000, has excelled at the junior level both in Kenya and in various cross country events. Although he was still determined to stand the distance of that track. In 2003 he broke the junior world record of 5000 meters and appeared in Full World Cup in Paris. He didn’t do it as a special guest, but as a title contender who left his mark from the beginning: the champion was proclaimed sprinting past an athletics legend like Hicham El Guerrouj.

It was the masterpiece of Kipchoge’s stay at that 5000, but also a prelude to the successes he was to achieve in the years to come. Olympic bronze was hung in the 5000 at Athens 2004, Olympic silver at Beijing 2008 and, in between, he achieved another world silver and an indoor world bronze in the 3000 meters.

Kipchoge remained committed to track in the following years, although he also began to stand cross. In front of 2012, he tried the Olympic qualification in 10,000 meters. He did not achieve this and because of this he began to consider other goals. Maybe his track stage is over and it’s time to move on to long distance.

Doubt became reality to him debut in the half marathon. It was in Lille, in 2012. Kipchoge did not win, but he shone and found the starting point to chain victories in successive events. Until, finally, he made the big move, the one that forever changed his career and launched him into legend.

April 21, 2013, Hamburg: the day the myth began to take shape

He has a brilliant track record, but despite his long list of achievements, he has yet to find the place to dominate in athletics. until, On April 21, 2013, Kipchoge decided to debut in the marathon. It was in Hamburg and the result was the one that accompanied him so much in his long-distance career: he won, at that time with 2:05.30.

Kipchoge began planning to stand on the distant queen. He debuted at a ‘major’ in Berlin in 2013 with a second place. He can compete head to head against the best in the world’s most important cities. That was his big goal. He focused on the ‘majors’ and began to reap significant victories.

first conquered Chicago (2014), continued his roadmap to London (2015) and months later the thorn was removed berlin (2015). He repeated his success in London in 2016 to take the next step to the Rio Games in his first Olympic gold. Berlin and London turned out to be perfectly tailored careers, as shown by his impressive record in the ‘majors’.

Add twelve achievements: four in the British capital, four more in Germany, one in Chicago and one in Tokyo, adding to their two Olympic titles in 2016 and 2021. He had fewer pending challenges, calling him Boston and New York in search of the completion of the work and in the World Cup as one of the scenarios that never motivated him too much.

Kipchoge’s motivation, in fact, was long rooted in another particular struggle in history. At the 2018 Berlin Marathon, the Kenyan clocked 2:01.39 to reduce by one minute and eighteen seconds the 2:02:57 held by his compatriot Dennis Kimetto as the world record until then. The two-hour barrier is closer than ever.

Icon of Athletic, icon of fighting against impossible obstacles, Kipchoge accepted the Ineos challenge and in 2019 he ran in Vienna in 1:59:40. It is in an unapproved marathon, with a route designed to measure to see the impossible reduction of two hours, with hares with very marked rhythms and turns, with a clearly indicated path. All so that the challenge previously missed by Kipchoge can be achieved, in 2017, in Monza.

Last year, again in Berlin, in a ‘major’, Kipchoge reached 2:01:09 on a completely legal basis. An unimaginable mark, a world record from another galaxy that served to put the marathon in a new dimension.

So, despite the fact that Kipchoge showed in Boston a few weeks ago that he is human (he finished sixth in mid-April), one of the most desired and at the same time almost forbidden questions in sport continues to resonate strongly with dreams as far more unrealistic. WhatWill the two-hour marathon barrier fall? Only time will tell, although only one person was able to give a positive answer to each question. Eliud Kipchoge, the boy who ran to school, has been sports history for years.