Berlin: Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge set a new marathon world record here Sunday, smashing the previous best as he clocked 2:01:40 seconds.
The 33-year-old Olympic champion, aided by a string of pacemakers through to 25km of the 42.195km race, took 1:17 seconds off the previous best set four years ago by Dennis Kimetto.
It was the largest single improvement on the marathon world record since Derek Clayton improved the mark by 2:23 in 1967. “My only words are ‘Thank you!’,” said Kipchoge.
Acclaimed as the greatest marathon runner of the modern era, Kipchoge has dominated the marathon since making his debut in Hamburg in 2013 after a successful track career that saw him win world gold and silver (2003, 2007) in the 5000m and Olympic silver and bronze (2008, 2004) over the same distances.
He has notched up 10 wins from the 11 marathons he has raced, winning three times not only here, but also London, with victories in Rio for Olympic gold as well as in Hamburg, Rotterdam and Chicago.
In the German capital Sunday, the Kenyan had just a handful of pacemakers for company from the early stages of the race.
The Kenyan passed through five kilometres in 14:24 seconds and 10 kilometres in 29:21s. But shortly after 15 kilometres, which was reached in 43:38s, two of the three pacemakers were unable to continue and withdrew from the race.
The final pacemaker, Josphat Boit, led Kipchoge through the half-way point in 1:01:06s before dropping out at 25 kilometres, covered in 1:12:24s.
Running alone with 17 kilometres left, Kipchoge then sped up. When he reached 40 kilometres, in 1:55:32s, a world record looked a certainty.
“Yes, it was tough running alone, but I was confident about getting it (record),” he said. “I’d said I was running my own course following my planning and I was confident.”
Kipchoge came agonisingly close to sporting immortality by nearly running the first sub two-hour marathon last year. He missed the mythical mark by just 25 seconds.