However, Kiptum and his coach, Garvis Hakizimana, died in a car accident on February 11.
However, I don’t think anyone really expected what happened this spring.
The spring marathon season is slowly coming to an end, and the Olympic qualification period also ends on May 6. There are still serious competitions in Prague and Hamburg, but we are already past the spring majors. We have already seen those who wanted to join the Kenyan or Ethiopian Olympic team in Tokyo, Boston or even London.
And although among the new generation races, there were quite good results in Dubai and Seville, it must be said that a really fast marathon was run only in Tokyo this spring. This competition could only and exclusively be interpreted in the same dimension as last fall’s competitions, Berlin, Chicago, Valencia, and New York. (However, “only” one career high was achieved in New York.)
Outside of Tokyo, only the last seven kilometers of the women’s race in Boston brought last fall’s standards, even though the Olympic champion
Peres Jepchirchir ran a world record in London.
He improved on this record Yepchirchir 45 seconds, with three of the four fastest women marathoners of all time in the field, and nine starting with personal bests under 2:18 minutes. It was almost certain that this field would break that record, the question was more about who and by how much.
Fantastic world record in London, Jepchirchir carved 45 seconds on the women’s record
I dare to say that Jepchirchir cut only 45 seconds off the previous record.
In general, we’ve seen more old-school marathons this spring, instead of the mad rush we witnessed in the fall. Last fall, only the 10,000 world record holder Joshua Cheptegei his spectacular fall in Valencia reminded us that the marathon distance has not become easier, the marathon distance has not become shorter. This year, however, is a complete spring.
That Sisay Lemma he started faster in Boston than he started last year in Valencia (1:00:19/1:00:35), this can be explained by the fact that the Boston course is steep and you can make good progress in the first half, but that compared to the December 2: The clock stopped at 01:48, a week ago at 2:06:17, with nothing more than the fact that the marathon distance is still the same as we know it.
Murderous, unpredictable, respectable.
In vain did Lemma have an advantage of more than 2 minutes 40 seconds, ha Mohamed Essa he reacts a little first, he could have even won the race, the Ethiopian is so ready with his strength. But in the men’s race in Rotterdam and London, the slowdown in the last 10 kilometers was also spectacular. In London, the field started at a pace well under 2 hours and 3 minutes and reached the halfway point, then Mutiso Win the masters world record with 2:04:01 again Kenenisa Bekele before. in Rotterdam Abdi Nageye he broke his own Dutch record, but instead of the predicted 2:03:30 at the half-distance, he also had to finish with 2:04:45. In London, the women’s wonderland ran 2:16:16 in 1:07:05, which we can safely call an old-fashioned marathon, especially considering the roughly three minutes that carbon-soled shoes are generally accepted to be.
The only extra was the hair of the women’s race in Boston, as I already mentioned, but it must be said that the first 30 kilometers were practically jogged at a pace of 2 hours and 26 minutes. At thirty, 17 were still together, and if they hadn’t changed their rhythm, they would have reached the finish line just inside the Olympic level of 2:26:50. Obiri and You’re welcome however, he not only changed his rhythm, but after the 35th km he moved at a pace that would have qualified him for the Olympics even in the 10,000 meters on the track. Granted, there was a bit of a slope at the end, but they also ran a 15:06 5,000m and a 4:41 mile.
As fast as he grows, he has never run a marathon.
The two-time world champion is in third place behind the two, but he is 44 years old Edna Kiplagat graduated, who with this performance became the hero of the competition in the same way as Kenenisa Bekele in London a few days later. Two months before his 42nd birthday.
The difference between the two is that Edna has no chance of making the Kenyan Olympic team, while Kenenisa has a chance to make it to Ethiopia with this second place, maybe not so little. Which is quite a magical turn after the news last summer that Bekele only had one farewell marathon left in his career. But then the little-known Chinese brand Anta appeared on the scene and offered Bekele, who spent his entire career at Nike, a contract. And not only did they offer him a contract, but they also contributed to the construction costs of the high-altitude training camp being built in Addis Ababa, named after Bekele. And Kenenisa was not ungrateful.
Can the two greatest living marathon runners be left at home?
With Bekele’s run in Valencia and London, he achieved that if they want to leave him out of the Ethiopian Olympic team in the same way as he was left out in Rio, then they will be able to do it in two ways at the Ethiopian federation: either by taking runners to Paris who he in London – currently the world in his biggest marathon – he practically ran away after 30 kilometers (Wolde, Tola), or by taking two young runners who have had only one worthwhile marathon in their entire lives (Take it, Gelete). Maybe even combine the two. Bekele, despite being fourth in Valencia and second in London, currently only has the sixth best Ethiopian time, and this is undoubtedly an area of attack.
There are no extra points for his age.
Although he might as well be walking, because these last two runs showed what routine means in long distance running. In Valencia, he came up to fourth place from ten kilometers on his own, running at his own pace, overtaking more than 10 runners in the last 10 kilometers, and in London he hid in the undergrowth for thirty kilometers, constantly looking for the wind shadow, as only very few know how, and then after the rabbits are out, pull the line so that one by one your compatriots give up the race.
Eliud Kipcho’sThe problems of – and the Kenyan federation – are exactly the opposite of the problems that Bekele – and the Ethiopian federation – are dealing with. The Kenyan man did not run better than Kipchoge in Berlin last fall in this qualification period, but he spoiled his race this year.
He finished only tenth in Tokyo with 2:06:50.
Kipchoge has never finished so far behind in a marathon race, and five of his compatriots beat him. To be honest, I can’t imagine Kipchoge not being given the opportunity to do the triple by the Kenyan federation just because he messed up a competition, especially not as a Nike-sponsored athlete, but the devil never sleeps there. I don’t even understand how anyone can even think of something like that, and the fact that it has occurred to them is a matter of fact.
As well as the fact that Eliud Kipchoge could be the first marathon runner in history to win three consecutive Olympics. Moreover, he could win there, in Paris, where he won the only world championship title of his life, at the age of 18, at 5,000 meters, winning one of the biggest races in the sport’s – not short – history. Shaking off the world champion of 1500 meters and 10,000 meters. The former Hicham El-Guerroujwas called
The latter for Kenenisa Bekele.
SZG#62 – Nobody asked
