IAAF backs Kipchoge's INEOS 1:59 Challenge

Despite the fact that it will not go down as an official world record, the IAAF isn’t opposed to Eliud Kipchoge’s attempt to dip under the two-hour marathon barrier in Vienna next month aided by unconventional technology.

International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) President Seb Coe said on Monday that he is “pretty relaxed” about Kipchoge’s October 12 “INEOS 1:59 Challenge” and welcomes innovation to make the sport more popular.

Kipchoge will be assisted by multiple fresh pacemakers, special running shoes and a lead car that will also act as a wind shield in his latest attempt at The Prater in the Austrian capital next month.

In May, 2017, aided by similar technology that’s not recognised by the world athletics governing body, Kipchoge, 34, fell agonisingly close to dipping under the iconic barrier by clocking 2:00:25 in Monza, Italy.

“I can be pretty relaxed about this,” Coe, a former Olympic 800 metres gold medallist and world record holder over the distance, said at a press conference on the eve of the IAAF World Championships that start on Friday in Doha.

The IAAF President added that he accepts “anything that attracts attention to our sport, within reasonable boundaries” noting that breaking the two-hour marathon barrier is “exciting and would attract interest.”

“It’s a barrier. It’s not something that would be ratified as a world record.

“(But) I have encouraged federations, I have encouraged organisations that want to promote our sport to be creative and sometimes think out of the box,” Coe added.

“And if people are gonna get excited about that (Kipchoge attempt), and a few young people might decide that marathon running or road running is for them, then I can be pretty catholic about it.

Actually, I’m very relaxed.”

Last week, Kipchoge said he was “making some adjustments” to his Nike Zoom Vaporfly Elite prototype shoe that he will use in Vienna and which has been described as being able to inject a four percent better performance.

Coe reacted that IAAF experts are still studying the technicality of running shoes.

“The technicality of the shoe is permanently a process in review. These are some of the regulations we are looking at,” he noted.

Speaking at the same press conference in Doha, IAAF’s Director of Communications Jackie Brock-Doyle said IAAF experts will be running some experiments at the Doha championships with a view to tackling the heat and humidity, conditions similar to what will be expected at next year’s Tokyo Olympics.

“We are also doing a pilot of a tablet that athletes are taking, which is an ‘internal thermometer’ that will be measuring the body heat,” she explained.

“That’s some of the work we are doing to try out new things. Our medical teams will have a look at that because it may be helpful in Tokyo.”

Concerns over an expected heat wave at the Tokyo Olympics has since seen organisers introduce a special paint with a cooling effect that’s being applied on the marathon route.

And due to the sweltering heat and high levels of humidity in Doha, the World Championships’ men’s and women’s marathon races will be run from midnight, local time.

The women’s marathon will kick off the programme at midnight on the opening day this Friday with Kenya’s Ednah Kiplagat hoping to clinch a hat-trick of World Championships marathon gold medals.