Kimetto eyes comeback in South Korea
Former Marathon World Record Holder Dennis Kimetto does light training at Kapng’etuny in Uasin Gishu County on March 7, 2019. PHOTO | JARED NYATAYA |
What you need to know:
- Kimetto is happy that his injury has now gone and that he can train better.
- “It has been difficult for me because I have been managing the injury which has been persisting for about four years now. I can now confirm to you that I’m good to go and I will be using the race to gauge my performance,” Kimetto said.
Ever since he shattered the world marathon record in Berlin in 2014, Dennis Kimetto has been struggling for form.
A calf muscle injury hasn’t made things any better for the 34-year-old star who held the world record at two hours, two minutes and 57 seconds.
But he now wants to bounce back at the April 7 Daegu Marathon in South Korea.
He badly wants his record back and it will be interesting to see how he responds to Eliud Kipchoge having shattered his mark, running 2:01:39 at last year’s Berlin Marathon.
"I want to go back to my winning days and I want to promise a world record which I will plan for,” Kimetto told Nation Sport at his Kapng’etuny training base in Uasin Gishu County at the weekend.
“And that time I will announce which race I will be using to go for the world record.”
Kimetto is happy that his injury has now gone and that he can train better.
“It has been difficult for me because I have been managing the injury which has been persisting for about four years now. I can now confirm to you that I’m good to go and I will be using the race to gauge my performance,” Kimetto said.
“It is still possible to lower the world record time that Eliud Kipchoge recorded last year in Berlin Marathon. I will be working hard to lower that time because it is still possible,” said Kimetto.
Kimetto went to the Shanghai Marathon last November to see if the injury was still persistent and was happy after finishing 10th without any problem.
“My joy was that I managed to finish the race without any problem though the weather was really bad,” he said.
Kimetto said that his tribulations started when he was selected to represent Kenya during the World Championships in Beijing in 2015 where he was forced to drop out of the race after picking an injury.
“After breaking the world record, I was so happy and I knew that I will enjoy running sub 2:02 and 2:03 but that was not the case and I have had a lot of stress because I couldn’t finish a lot of races,” said Kimetto.
Last year, Kenyans dominated the Daegu Marathon with Abraham Kiptum and Janet Rono winning the men’s and women’s races. Kiptum’s winning time of 2:06:29 was also a new course record.
