Kipchoge goes for personal best, silent on world record

The reigning London Marathon champion Eliud Kipchoge has predicted a fast race when this year’s Berlin Marathon goes down on September 27 in Germany.

However, Kipchoge, who will be aiming to better his personal best of 2 hours and 04:05 minutes that apparently came from the same course in 2013, was none-committal if the world record will go down.

Kenya’s Dennis Kimetto became the first man to run a sub 2:02 when he won last year’s Berlin Marathon in a world record breaking time of 2:02:57.

Kimetto is not among the elite athletes list that includes Kipchoge and compatriots Emmanuel Mutai and Geoffrey Mutai headed for Berlin.

“My training has been going on so well under coach Patrick sang in Kaptagat and my body feels great,” said the 30-year-old Kipchoge, who triumphed on his debut in London with a time of 2:04:42 on April 26 this year.

Kipchoge, who will be making his second appearance in Berlin, which is his sixth career marathon race, said he expects a fast race with the two Mutais in the race.

“They have good times but running sub 2:02 will take a lot of effort from the pacesetters and the rest of the park,” explained Kipchoge.

London Marathon was Kipchoge’s last race where he beat former world record holder Wilson Kipsang by five seconds in a thriller that saw the likes of Emmanuel Mutai, Stanley Biwott and Dennis Kimetto drop from the lead group.

Kipchoge, who hoped to improve his 2:05:30 personal best from his marathon debut at the 2013 Hamburg, finished second at the 2013 Berlin Marathon in 2:04:05, the fifth fastest time in history, behind Wilson Kipsang, who set a new Marathon World Record of 2:03.23. Kimetto would improve the record to 2:02:57 last year at the same course.

Emmanuel Mutai was in contention in last year's Berlin Marathon but would finish in a sensational 2:03:13, but thaty show was overshadowed by Kimetto's record breaking feat.

Kipchoge and the Mutais have sparkling resumes and strong personal bests that will once again put all eyes on Berlin to see what fast runners can do on a fast course. The trio leave the country on Thursday for the assault.

Emmanuel Mutai finished second at last year’s Berlin Marathon behind Kimetto. Mutai’s time of 2:03:13 was sensational, despite being overshadowed by Kimetto’s World Record of time 2:02:57.

Geoffrey Mutai, meanwhile, has a personal best 2:03:02 from the 2011 Boston Marathon, and won the 2012 Berlin Marathon in 2:04:15. He’s also a two-time winner of the New York City Marathon.

He finished sixth in the 2014 London Marathon, clocking 2:08:18 for sixth place, but dropped out of this year’s race.

Berlin Marathon is one of six World Marathon Major races, and the next one on the schedule. The other fall World Marathon Majors are the Chicago Marathon on October 11 and the New York City Marathon on November 1. Tokyo, Boston and London have already been staged.