NAIROBI, Kenya, Sep 21 – World Marathon record holder Eliud Kipchoge arrived in Berlin, Germany on Tuesday night, ready for a historic chase to become only the second man in history to win the Berlin Marathon four times.
He will be looking towards adding on to his London Marathon history, having become the first man to win four titles in the British capital in 2019.
This will be Kipchoge’s second race this year, having won the Tokyo Marathon on debut in March in a new Course Record time.
Kipchoge jetted into Germany Tuesday night and was warmly received by organisers, with a pretty beautiful gift of sunflowers to usher him into a city where he set his World Record four years ago.
The Kenyan athletics powerhouse, regarded as the greatest marathoner of all time, will be eying a shot at running below the 2:01:39 mark he won the title with in 2018, which ended up being the World Record.
He ran a minute and 18 seconds beyond the previous record held by Dennis Kimetto, run on the same course.
Will he do it again? “The whole course of Berlin is really smooth. It is a good course where if you have trained well, it can go with your muscles and it can make you to run really fast and even for long,” Kipchoge said in an interview with NN Running.
He added; “I still believe that I can run a course record in Berlin.”
Kipchoge has not run in Berlin in the last two editions and returns, having won two in a row in 2017 and 2018, adding on to his 2015 title.
Among those he will watch out for in the race is Ethiopian Guye Adola who pushed him at the 2017 race and almost snapped the victory out of his sight.
But, Kipchoge remains confident that he has trained well and is ready for the task at hand, with everyone looking at his time and whether he will break the World record for a second time.
The men’s World Record has been broken eight times in Berlin, five of those times by Kenyans. Kipchoge, Kimetto, Wilson Kipsang, Patrick Makau and Paul Tergat have all set world marks in the flat and manageable course in the German capital.
“I can’t say it will be a World record, let’s just say, I want to run a good race in Berlin. If it will be a personal best or a World Record, I will celebrate. I want to run a good race in Berlin. Berlin is where human beings can push their limits,” Kipchoge said as he previewed the race.
