Eliud Kipchoge (39 years old) will participate in his fifth Olympic Games in search of his fifth medal, the third gold in the marathon. Still a milestone no one has achieved the distance of Pheidippides in history and that for the Kenyan it has become a greater motivation than money.
Participate on August 10 in the Paris Olympic event He will be prevented from putting his number in the Berlin Marathon on September 29, the most important ‘Major’ of his lifewhere he achieved two world records (2018 and 2021) and where he is guaranteed a generous starting price.
Kenya’s level in the marathon is already very high Kipchoge He occupies the 19th position in the ranking of runners in his country this year with a best time of 2h06’50. Furthermore, the African country has 41 athletes with the lowest record to participate in the Games (2h08’10) and was established in the first four months of the year.
Kipchoge’s involvement could be even more attractive if a stellar duel with Kenenisa Bekele is confirmed (41 years old), tTriple Olympic track champion in 5,000m and 10,000m. Bekele is waiting to be definitively confirmed as one of Ethiopia’s three representatives at the games.
His performances in the last two marathons held within five months, Valencia (2h04’19) and London (2h04’15), were excellent and he will be a powerful asset to fight for the gold.
He The Kenyan Olympic Committee has added Kipchoge to the trio that will compete in the Paris 2024 Olympic marathon alongside Benson Kipruto and Alex Mutiso.
Kipchoge is not among the best in his country’s list, but this will be a big team that has 14 victories in the ‘Majors’ -the group of the six most important marathons in the world formed by Berlin, New York, Boston, London, Chicago and Tokyo-. Kipchoge has 10 wins at ‘Majors’ and two at the Olympic Games and his country’s committee has prioritized his merits over his recent results.
Kipruto won this year in Tokyo and also won in Boston (2021) and Chicago (2022). Mutiso, for his part, won this year’s London ahead of Kenenisa Bekele. All three have times below 2h03’12 and are clear favorites to top the Paris podium.
In the female category they will attend the appointment together Peres Jpechirchir, defending champion in Tokyo 2020 and aspires to become the first woman in history to become a double world and Olympic champion.
The great absent will be Marathon world record holder Kelvin Kiptum, who died in his native Kenya in a fatal car accident in February.
Spain will go to Paris with a strong six-member team, that they will not be among the favorites to fight for the medals. In the men they will attend with Ibrahim Chakir, Yago Rojo and Tariku Novales and in the women with Majida Mayouf, Ester Navarrete and Meritxell Soler.
The men’s Olympic marathon It will be held on Saturday, August 10 and the women’s event will be held the following day to close the Games, both at 8 am.
Source: La Verdad
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