Eliud Kipchoge

Eliud Kipchoge

Personal information
Born	(1984-11-05) 5 November 1984
Height	167 cm (5 ft 6 in)
Weight	57 kg (126 lb)
Sport
Country	Kenya
Sport	Athletics
Coached by	Patrick Sang
Medal record Eliud Kipchoge Medal record Men's athletics Representing  Kenya Olympic Games 2016 Rio de Janeiro Marathon 2008 Beijing 5000 m 2004 Athens 5000 m World Championships 2003 Paris 5000 m 2007 Osaka 5000 m World Cross Country Championships 2003 Lausanne Junior Race World Indoor Championships 2006 Moscow 3000 m Commonwealth Games 2010 Delhi 5000 m

Eliud Kipchoge (born 5 November 1984 in Kapsisiywa, Nandi District) is a Kenyan long distance runner, and the 2016 Olympic marathon gold medallist.

He came to prominence in 2003 by winning the junior race at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships, setting a world junior record over 5000 metres on the track and then becoming world champion at the 2003 World Championships in Athletics. An Olympic 5000 m bronze for Kenya followed at the 2004 Athens Olympics and he took another bronze at the 2006 IAAF World Indoor Championships.

A series of silver medals came, starting at the 2007 World Championships in Athletics before another runner-up placing at the 2008 Summer Olympics. He was fifth at the 2009 World Championships but again reached the podium at the 2010 Commonwealth Games; he was second behind Moses Kipsiro in the 5000 metres. He has won four medals at editions of the annual IAAF World Athletics Final and is a five-time 5000 m finalist at the World Championships.

His 3000 metres best of 7:27.66 ranks him as the 12th fastest at the distance ever and his 5000 m best of 12:46.53 makes him the fourth fastest ever in the event.^[1] He began to move towards road running in 2012 and set a half marathon best of 59:25 minutes—which is the third fastest debut half marathon in history. He then won the 2013 Hamburg Marathon with a very fast finishing time of 2:05:30. He improved on this later that year, at the Berlin Marathon, running 2:04:05, the fifth-fastest marathon in history at the time. He won the London Marathon in 2015.^[2] He also won the Berlin Marathon in 2015 in 2:04:00, improving his personal best by 5 seconds despite the insoles of his shoes coming loose early in the race. In 2016, he improved on this personal best again, achieving a winning time of 2:03:05 (second fastest time ever at the time on a record-eligible course and setting a new course record) at the London Marathon,^[3] followed by a gold medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics with a time of 2:08:44.

On 6 May 2017, as part of the Nike Breaking2 project, he ran a marathon distance in 2:00:25 at the Monza race track, Italy.^[4] His time marks the fastest marathon ever run^[5], but is not an official world record due to the circumstances in which it occurred.^[6]

Career

2002–2004

Kipchoge graduated from Kaptel Secondary School in 1999 but did not run seriously then. In 2002, he won at the Kenyan trials for the 2002 IAAF World Cross Country Championships junior race. At the World Cross Country Championships, held in Dublin, Kipchoge finished fifth in the individual race and was part on the Kenyan junior team that won gold. Kipchoge also won the 5000 metres race at the Kenyan trial for the 2002 World Junior Championships in Athletics, but got ill and missed the championships. At the 2003 IAAF World Cross Country Championships he won the junior race.

Kipchoge won a gold medal at the 5000 m final at the 2003 World Championships, outsprinting both future world record holder Kenenisa Bekele and runner-up Hicham El Guerrouj (the world record holder in the 1500 metres and mile) by four hundredths of a second (12:52.79 vs. 12:52.83).^[7]

Kipchoge later won a bronze medal at the 5000 m final at the 2004 Athens Olympics, behind El Guerrouj and Kenenisa Bekele.^[8] He also won the Trofeo Alasport cross country race earlier that season.

World and Olympic medals

Kipchoge won the bronze in the 3000 metres indoor at the 2006 World Championships in Moscow. At the end of the year, he ran at the San Silvestre Vallecana New Year's Eve 10 km road race and he just held off Zersenay Tadese to win in a time of 26.54 minutes. This was better than the world record, but the time was assisted by the downhill course.^[9]

Kipchoge won a silver medal at the 5000 m final of the 2007 World Championships at Osaka in 13:46.00, behind Bernard Lagat (13:45.87).^[10]

During the 2008 Olympics held in Beijing, China, Kipchoge won a silver medal in the 5000m event with a time of 13:02.80 which was better than the previous Olympic record of 13:05.59 but it was not enough to match Kenenisa Bekele's pace, who won the gold medal for this race.^[11] He failed to reach the podium at the 2009 World Championships in Athletics, finishing in fifth place and he also finished ninth in the 3000 m at the 2009 IAAF World Athletics Final. On the circuit, he won the Great Yorkshire Run 10K and Campaccio Cross Country that year.

During the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, Kipchoge won a gold medal in the marathon.

2010–11 seasons

He made his debut on the 2010 IAAF Diamond League by winning the 5000 m Qatar Athletic Super Grand Prix in a meet record time.^[12] Kipchoge made a world best attempt at the 2010 Carlsbad 5000 road race and, although he won the race, weather affected his chances and he finished in 13:11, the fourth fastest ever for the course.^[13]

In the first athletics final of the 2010 Commonwealth Games, he attempted to win the 5000 m Commonwealth title. Ugandan runner Moses Kipsiro held a slender lead over him in the final stages of the race and Kipchoge ended up in second place, taking the silver medal some seven hundredths of a second behind.^[14][15] He flew back to Europe immediately after to take part in the Belgrade Race Through History the following day. His shoe fell off in the first kilometre and, after putting it back on, he made up much ground on the field to eventually take second place two seconds behind Josphat Menjo.^[16]

At the start of 2011, he won the short race at the Great Edinburgh Cross Country, ahead of Asbel Kiprop.^[17] He attempted to retain his title at the Carlsbad 5000 in April but came a close second behind Dejen Gebremeskel.^[18] Kipchoge was chosen to represent Kenya at the 2011 World Championships in Athletics and reached the 5000 m final for the fifth consecutive time, although he only managed seventh place on this occasion.

Move to road events

Eliud Kipchoge in 2015

Kipchoge returned to the Edinburgh Cross Country in 2012, but this time he finished third behind Asbel Kiprop and Britain's Jonathan Hay.^[19] He was also third at the Carlsbad 5000 in March.^[20] He attempted to gain a place on the 10,000 m Olympic team at the Prefontaine Classic, but fell back in the late stages of the Kenyan trial race, finishing seventh.^[21] A seventh-place finish in the Kenyan 5000 m trial race meant he would not make a third consecutive Olympic team.^[22] As a result, he changed his focus to a half marathon debut and, after running a time of 59:25 minutes for third at the Lille Half Marathon,^[23] he entered the 2012 IAAF World Half Marathon Championships and placed sixth.^[24]

Kipchoge opened his 2013 season with a win at the Barcelona Half Marathon in a time of one hour and four seconds.^[25] Making his marathon debut in April, he demonstrated a perfect transition to the longer distance by taking the Hamburg Marathon title with a run of 2:05:30 hours – beating the field by over two minutes and setting a new course record.^[26] In August 2013 he won the Half Marathon of Klagenfurt in 61:02 minutes.^[27] Then, he raced in the Berlin Marathon, hoping to improve his 2:05:30 personal best from the Hamburg Marathon, and he finished second in 2:04:05, the fifth fastest time in history, behind Wilson Kipsang, who set a new marathon world record. This made him the fifth fastest marathon runner in history, in only his second ever marathon. In April 2016, Kipchoge won the London Marathon for the second consecutive year in a time of 2:03:05.^[28] His performance broke the course record in London, and became the second fastest marathon time in history on an approved course, missing Dennis Kimetto's world record by 8 seconds.^[29] Later that year, on 21 August 2016 at the Rio Olympics Eliud Kipchoge won the gold medal in the men's marathon in a time of 2:08:44.

On 20 November 2016 Kipchoge ran in the Airtel Delhi Half Marathon, he won the race clocking a time of 59:44.^[30]

On 6 May 2017, Kipchoge, along with Zersenay Tadese and Lelisa Desisa, attempted a first sub-two-hour assisted marathon, in Nike Breaking2 project on the Monza Formula 1 racetrack near Milan, Italy. It was paced by a lead car and supporting runners joining in stages. He finished in 2:00:25, while the other two had to slow and finished far behind. The runners planned even 14:13 5k splits to break 2 hours. His 5k splits were: 14:14, 14:07, 14:13, 14:15, 14:14, 14:17, 14:17, 14:27, and 6:20 to finish.^[31] The 5k split times 25k and further would be world records: 25k in 1:11:03, 30k in 1:25:20, 35k in 1:39:37, 40k in 1:54:04.

Major achievements

Personal Bests

All Information taken from IAAF profile.^[32]

References

External links

• Eliud Kipchoge profile at IAAF
• IAAF, 9 March 2006: Focus on Africa – Eliud Kipchoge (KEN)

Sporting positions
Preceded by Hicham El Guerrouj	Men's 3,000 m best year performance 2004–2005	Succeeded by Isaac Kiprono Songok
Preceded by Edwin Cheruiyot Soi	Men's 3,000 m best year performance 2009	Succeeded by Tariku Bekele