Kenyan runner sets new world record at Berlin marathon

BERLIN, Germany 

Two times Olympic marathon champion Eliud Kipchoge has set a new world record at 2:01:09 on his way to winning the Berlin Marathon for the fourth time. Kipchoge slashed 30 seconds from his previous world record of 2:01:39.

The 37-year old experienced marathoner employed a different strategy to that which propelled him to victory in 2018, where he run at a steady pace in the first half of the race. In contrast, he run the first 22km in under 59:51 minutes keeping him on track to beat the two-hour mark barrier.

From the 30Km mark, Kipchoge run all by himself with Ethiopia’s Andamlak Belihu as the closest opponent.

His pace dropped in the second half of the race, making the two-hour mark barrier impossible to beat but he was able to set a new world record.

He previously won in 2015, 2017, and 2018 editions of the Berlin marathon and placed second in the 2013 edition.

Kipchoge returned to the Berlin Marathon, where he set the previous world record of 2:01:39 in September 2018. He broke Dennis Kimeto’s world record set in 2014 slashing  1:18 minutes.

In 2019, Kipchoge became the first person to run the marathon in under two hours, with an unofficial time of 1:59:40 in Vienna, Austria.

Kipchoge has 19 marathon starts and recorded 76 wins with just two losses at the 2013 Berlin Marathon (he finished second to Wilson Kipsang, who set a then-world record) and the 2020 London Marathon (he was eighth).

He has won four world marathon majors (London, Chicago, Berlin, and Tokyo) with course records at London, Berlin, and Tokyo and two  Olympic titles (Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020).