Tough road ahead for Kipchoge, Cheruiyot

What a season ahead for Eliud Kipchoge and Vivian Cheruiyot!

Watching Kenenisa Bekele bow out at the halfway mark of Friday’s Dubai Marathon on his world record attempt must have triggered alarm bells in Kipchoge’s head.

Because Kipchoge, one of the world’s finest distance runners, is following a bespoke, scientific training regime with a view to “breaking two” and become the first human being to run the marathon (42 kilometres) in under two hours. When he was crowned “Sportsman of the Year” at Thursday night’s Safaricom Sports Personality of the Year Awards at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre, Kipchoge sought prayers from his legion of fans.

“Ladies and gentlemen may I beg all of you to wish me luck as I prepare to go beyond the human limitation by involving myself to Nike project “Breaking 2” which will see me running a marathon under two hours,” he told the audience at the KICC.

“My journey is on till May and I invite the interested parties to partner with me in this noble journey and show the world that marathon is life and human has no limitation.”

TALL ORDER

And as Kipchoge pushes his body to the limit, Cheruiyot will also be embarking on another tough career move with her marathon debut in London in April. Named the “Sportswoman of the Year” and also the overall “Sports Personality of the Year”, Cheruiyot knows the marathon is a completely different ball game.

“It has really been tough but I must say I have had fantastic years on track,” said Cheruiyot, who will be making her debut on the streets of London on April 23. “It’s a tall order but I believe I can.”

Cheruiyot has endured 17 years on the track and in cross country running, her track career climaxing with an Olympic 5,000 metres gold in Rio last year.

And she feels she has another 10 years on the road before calling time on her career. Which doesn’t concern her as much as the lack of younger pretenders to her throne.

“I have reigned for about 17 years in 5,000m, 10,000m, and cross country... If Vivian is still winning awards after 17 years, where are the young athletes?” she posed after scooping the two most prestigious awards on Thursday.

Meanwhile, the 32-year-old Kipchoge, the Rio Olympic marathon champion, charmed the packed Tsavo Ballroom at the KICC with his eloquent speech.

Kipchoge had a robust track career, winning the 2003 world 5,000 metres title and a silver over the same distance at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

“The conception, gestation and birth of this moment is a miraculous process and the word ‘acknowledgement’ doesn’t even begin to do justice to the creative and supporting roles played by so many,” said Kipchoge to a rapturous applause.

“All of you are not simply the best, but stratospherically the best.”

Kipchoge noted that sports is a universal profession, which every human should love and make it their lifestyle.

However, Kipchoge, who came close to breaking fellow country man Dennis Kimetto’s world record of 2:02:57, falling short by eight seconds last year in London, remained guarded on the possible grounds where he could strike.

With his name missing out at London Marathon due April 23, the only possible race where Kipchoge could break the World record is in Rotterdam Marathon on April 8 since Paris (April) and Boston (April 15) are not ideal.

Ethiopian Yemane Tsegay holds the course record of 2:04:48 at Rotterdam Marathon set in 2012.

Kipchoge is one of three athletes Nike has unveiled for its new attempt to bring the world record under two hours. The others are Eritrean Zersenay Tadese, who has won the World Half Marathon title five times and the 2013 World marathon silver medallist Lelisa Desisa from Ethiopia.

Besides becoming the second Kenyan to win the Olympic title at the Rio Summer Games, Kipchoge won his maiden the World Marathon Majors Series and Association of International Marathon Series (AIMS) awards last year.