Eliud Kipchoge Shatters His Own World Record to Win the Berlin Marathon in 2:01:09
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Andreas Gora/picture alliance via Getty Eliud Kipchoge
Eliud Kipchoge just set the newest world marathon record — again!
The Kenyan long-distance runner, 37, finished the 2022 Berlin Marathon on Sunday in 2:01:09, smashing his own world record.
Kipchoge ran 30 seconds faster — a massive jump for a world marathon record — than his previous best effort in 2018, also set in Berlin, according to NPR and the Associated Press.
Kipchoge's pace was so quick on Sunday that the second-place runner finished the marathon four minutes and 49 seconds after him, giving Kipchoge enough time to greet his friends, family, coaches and supporters and wave the Kenyan flag before that runner finished, according to NPR.
"My legs and my body still feel young," Kipchoge told the AP after the race. "But the most important thing is my mind, and that also feels fresh and young. I'm so happy to break the world record."
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Andreas Gora/picture alliance via Getty Eliud Kipchoge
Kipchoge's victory in Berlin Sunday marked his fourth win at the Berlin Marathon, according to the AP.
Ethiopian runner Tigist Assefa won the women's race in Berlin in a course record of 2 hours, 15 minutes and 37 seconds, making her the third fastest woman ever in the marathon. Between their two records, the 2022 Berlin Marathon was the fastest-ran ever.
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The men's world record has now been set and re-set at the Berlin Marathon eight consecutive years, according to the AP, which attributed the feat to the race's flat course.
Around 45,527 runners from 157 nations around the world registered to race in Berlin on Sunday, the first Berlin Marathon to operate without COVID-19 restrictions since the pandemic began.
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Kipchoge and Ethiopian runner Andamlak Belihu both completed the marathon's first half in 59 minutes and 51 seconds before Kipchoge dropped his competition in the back half of the course.
Kipchoge has run a faster marathon — in Oct. 2019, he became the first person to run a marathon in under two hours.
Then 34, Kipchoge ran the 26.2 miles in one hour, 59 minutes and 40 seconds at the INEOS 1:59 Challenge in Vienna, Austria, on a course specifically designed for the attempt.
Andreas Gora/picture alliance via Getty Eliud Kipchoge
Though the accomplishment marked a milestone in the running world, Kipchoge's time was not recognized as an official world record because it was not run under "open marathon conditions" and because Kipchoge ran alongside a group of professional pacesetters, according to The New York Times.
"I wanted to run under two hours and show human beings can do a good job and lead a good life. It shows the positivity of sport," Kipchoge said about the mark at the time, according to Runner's World. "I want to make the sport an interesting sport whereby all human beings can run and together we can make this world a beautiful world."
