Sumptuous TV menu for Eliud Kipchoge fans

We are going into the final week in the countdown to Eliud Kipchoge’s stab at history, and the goose bumps are popping out. Not that there’s fear, or anything, it’s just that the excitement is palpable, and rising to a deafening crescendo, with the prospects of history being made at The Prater in Vienna increasingly becoming tangible.

A sumptuous weekend awaits global athletics fans, and indeed even those who hardly follow the sport, as Kipchoge sets out to prove that “no human is limited.”

Viewing parties have been organised at sports bars in major cities and amounts are being wagered with some still not sure whether or not the Kenyan Olympic champion will dip under the iconic two-hour mark in the Austrian capital.

Kipchoge’s automobile partners, Isuzu East Africa, have already announced they will organise a viewing session. Isuzu have promised to give Kipchoge a single-cabin D-Max pick-up should he dip under the two-hour mark, a challenge he has gleefully accepted. The October 12 event will be streamed live on the INEOS 1:59 YouTube channel with an interactive option on www.ineos159challenge.com.

Besides, already, 30 broadcasters — including free-to-air channels — in over 200 territories worldwide have signed up to broadcast the event live with details of the channels and broadcast times coming up in the next few days, in good time for fans to sit back, relax and plan.

The latest sporting star to endorse Kipchoge’s challenge is former Arsenal skipper Patrick Vieira who, like Kipchoge, believes that no human is limited.

“I absolutely believe that Eliud can do it because he is fully focused and he has the right support to make it happen. I think he’s really up for it, he is so driven, it has become an obsession,” Vieira said this week in a statement released by INEOS. He joins other sporting legends, including Kenya-born British Tour de France-winning cyclist Chris Froome and Austria’s Olympic skiing gold medallist Hermann Maier in amplifying Kipchoge’s mantra that “no human is limited.”

“Breaking the two-hour mark for a marathon will be momentous, without major assistance from technology as running is a matter of lungs, legs and keeping your speed,” Maier said last week. “But a lot can happen in two hours — the wind may change, and this is why belief is important, to face this battle with yourself.”

I can’t wait to join these legends and other sporting enthusiasts in Vienna next weekend!