Mo Farah tips trio to lower marathon record
What you need to know:
- Great Britain’s distance running great Mo Farah is among many athletes and running experts who believe the world marathon record will fall here in Sunday’s eagerly-awaited 44th BMW Berlin Marathon.
- “Mo” wished the trio of Kenya’s Olympic champion Eliud Kipchoge, former record holder Wilson Kipsang and Ethiopia’s defending champion Kenenisa Bekele success as they attempt to lower Kenyan Dennis Kimetto’s world best mark of two hours, two minutes and 57 seconds in Sunday’s race.
- The three have vowed to shatter the record and Farah, who this season quit track running after winning gold and silver in the 10,000 and 5,000 metres at his home World Championships in London, believes they can do it.
IN BERLIN
Great Britain’s distance running great Mo Farah is among many athletes and running experts who believe the world marathon record will fall here in Sunday’s eagerly-awaited 44th BMW Berlin Marathon.
“Mo” wished the trio of Kenya’s Olympic champion Eliud Kipchoge, former record holder Wilson Kipsang and Ethiopia’s defending champion Kenenisa Bekele success as they attempt to lower Kenyan Dennis Kimetto’s world best mark of two hours, two minutes and 57 seconds in Sunday’s race.
The three have vowed to shatter the record and Farah, who this season quit track running after winning gold and silver in the 10,000 and 5,000 metres at his home World Championships in London, believes they can do it.
“I will fortunately have landed in the states in good time to watch the race. It’s possible (to break the world record)… I know Eliud can do it,” Farah told Nation Sport at the Abu Dhabi International as he headed off on holiday in USA with his family after a rewarding season.
Farah will from next season focus on road running, making an eagerly awaited comeback to the London Marathon in April.
The four-time Olympic champion spoke as organisers here held the elite pre-race press conference where Kipchoge, Kipsang and Bekele were unveiled to the media ahead of Sunday’s race that starts at 10am, Kenyan time.
There has been some shadow boxing between the three athletes in the build-up to the’s race with Kipsang saying he is not afraid of Kipchoge despite the latter’s remarkable achievement of running the marathon in 2:00:25 in last May’s “Breaking2” project by Kipchoge’s sponsors, Nike.
“What Eliud has done over the past years is phenomenal,” Kipsang told race organisers here earlier.
“I’m talking mostly about his victories but less about this ‘Breaking2’ project in Monza.
“(To run) 2:00:25 is impressive, but I believe that the entire setting, from the flat loop course to the alternating pacemakers to the refreshments probably made a difference of about two minutes.
“If I had the same assistance, I believe I could acheived a time like that as well,” argued Kipsang who broke the world record, also in Berlin, running 2:03:23 in 2013 before Dennis Kimetto improved the mark to the current record of 2:02:57 some 12 months later, again in Berlin.
ELITE MEN: PERSONAL BESTS
Kenenisa Bekele ETH 2:03:03
Eliud Kipchoge KEN 2:03:05
Wilson Kipsang KEN 2:03:13
Vincent Kipruto KEN 2:05:13
Felix Kandie KEN 2:06:03
Hiroaki Sano JPN 2:09:12
Koji Gokaya JPN 2:09:21
Yuta Shitara JPN 2:09:27
Mosinet Geremew ETH 2:10:20
Hassan Chahdi FRA 2:10:20
Melaku Belachew ETH 2:10:31
Scott Overall GBR 2:10:55
Ryan Vail USA 2:10:57
Chalachew Tiruneh ETH 2:11:54
Benjamin Malaty FRA 2:12:00
Jean Habarurema FRA 2:12:40
Willem van Schuerbeeck BEL 2:12:49
Philipp Pflieger GER 2:12:50
Guye Adola ETH Debut
