BERLIN: Kenya’s Olympic champion Eliud Kipchoge pulverised the marathon world record with a blistering run on Sunday, slicing a staggering 78 seconds off the previous best to land the one major running crown that had eluded him.

The 33-year-old, widely seen as the greatest marathon runner of the modern era, ran an official time of two hours, one minute and 39 seconds on a sunny day along the flat inner-city course, smashing Dennis Kimetto’s previous record that had stood since 2014.

Fellow Kenyan Gladys Cherono won the women’s race with a course record and best time of the year of 2:18:11, leaving Ethiopians Ruti Aga and pre-race favourite Tirunesh Dibaba in second and third place respectively.

Kipchoge’s run was the biggest improvement on the marathon mark since Australian Derek Clayton took almost two and a half minutes off the record in 1967.

“I lack words to describe this day,” Kipchoge said after becoming the first person to finish a marathon in less than 2 hours and 2 minutes.

“They say you miss two times but you can’t miss the third time,” he said in reference to his two previous failed attempts to break the world record in Berlin.

The Kenyan defended his 2017 title in the German capital, pulling ahead of other runners early on amid perfect conditions. Mild autumn temperatures and little to no wind gave the runners an advantage over last year, when rain slowed the race.

“My only words are ‘Thank you!’,” said Kipchoge, who sprinted into the lead after 100 metres and never let up. “I was prepared to run my own race early so I wasn’t surprised to be alone.

“I have trained so well for this race and have full trust in the programmes of my coach. I am just so incredibly happy to have finally run the world record as I never stopped having belief in myself.”

Berlin debutant Amos Kipruto came second in 2 hours, 6 minutes and 23 seconds, followed by a third Kenyan, former world-record holder Wilson Kipsang, with 2 hours, six minutes and 48 seconds.

Shogo Nakamura of Japan narrowly missed setting a new national record with a time of 2 hours, 8 minutes and 16 seconds.

Published in Dawn, September 17th, 2018