Ringside view: Of cancelled cheque, cash & promissory note

Eliud Kipchoge, widely regarded as the world’s greatest long-distance runner, returns to competitive action at the Berlin Marathon today (Sept 24) as he prepares for a shot at becoming the first athlete to win a third Olympic marathon crown at next year’s Paris Games.

The German capital is among the Kenyan’s favourite hunting grounds, having set a then world record 2:01:39 in 2018 and slicing it by an astonishing 30 seconds last year for a record-equaling fourth Berlin title.

The Berlin Marathon, held on a fast course, is part of the World Marathon Majors along with races in Boston, Chicago, London, New York and Tokyo.

The 38-year-old’s return is highly anticipated by the global distance running community following his unexpected sixth-place finish in Boston in April after having won 15 out of the 18 sanctioned marathons he had raced.

It was the world record holder’s Boston debut in his quest to win all six Majors, and remains one of the two Majors he is yet to win. He has never run the New York Marathon.

Kipchoge completed the race in 2:09:23, the slowest marathon time of his career, after sustaining a niggle after 30 kilometres, forcing him to slow down to a comfortable pace “just to finish.”

“Yesterday is a cancelled cheque, today is cash and tomorrow a promissory note. Let us forget about the cancelled cheques. Let us talk of the cash and the promissory notes,” he said a day after the race, underlining his philosophy.

The most decorated marathon runner of all time, Kipchoge’s main focus is the Paris Olympics, where he will bid for a third straight gold after 2016 Rio and 2020 Tokyo to surpass Ethiopia’s Abebe Bikila (1960 & 1964) and East Germany’s Waldemar Cierpinski (1976 & 1980).

“On my road to the Paris Olympics, I like to go back to the Berlin Marathon, since, to me, this is the perfect preparation,” said Kipchoge, who ran the first sub two-hour marathon at the INEOS 1:59 Challenge in Vienna in 2019, an unratified event.

Kipchoge could well face a serious challenger at the Olympics in young compatriot Kelvin Kiptum. The 23-year-old recorded the second-fastest time in history – 2:01:25 – at this year’s London Marathon, just 16 seconds shy of the world record, in what was his Majors debut.

It was also only Kiptum’s second marathon after recording the fastest debut in history in Valencia in December, winning in 2:01:53 to enter the world all-time list at No 3 behind Kipchoge and Ethiopia’s Kenenisa Bekele, who ran 2:01:41 in Berlin in 2019.

Kiptum’s next outing is Chicago in two weeks and he is seen as the one capable of beating Kipchoge’s world record.

“I always say records are meant to be broken and I hope Kiptum does that in the near future. He is a man with a big heart,” Kipchoge has said.