Kenya’s Eliud Kipchoge has become the first man ever to run the marathon under two hours.
Kipchoge achieved the feat at the Ineos 1:59 Challenge in Vienna, Austria on Saturday where he covered 42.2km in one hour 59 minutes 40 seconds.
The feat will however not be recognised by the world athletics governing body IAAF as the official marathon world record.
This is because the race was not in open competition and he used a team of rotating 42 pacemakers.
However, while speaking after the race, the Olympian who held the official marathon world record of 2:01:39 compared the feat to walking to the moon.
“Today we went to the Moon and came back to earth! I am at a loss for words for all the support I have received from all over the world,” he said on his twitter handle @eliudkipchoge.
“Thank you to all who gave me the opportunity. Asante”.
The attempt however, was funded by petrochemicals company Ineos which is owned by Britain’s richest man, Sir Jim Ratcliffe.
Discussion about this post