One hour, 59 minutes, and 40 seconds: Eliud Kipchoge's Dream Run
A 17-second 100 metre 422 times in a row. Every kilometre at 2 minutes, fifty seconds, 42 consecutive times. However you say it, Eliud Kipchoge’s feat of running a marathon under two hours is ridiculous. It is, in human achievement terms, right up there with Edmund Hillary-Tensing Norgay and Roger Bannister’s feats of athletic endeavour. And just like those two, Kipchoge’s feat, a literal raising of the bar, is groundbreaking for athletics. For a discipline that has long gone under the radar, marathon running under Kipchoge has witnessed a renaissance of sorts in the last few years. His lowering of the world record last year in Berlin, a first attempt at a sub two-hour marathon in Monza in 2017, and successfully doing it on October 12 has rejuvenated athletics, reeling from a lack of real superstars since Usain Bolt retired. Our sports team dissects the brilliance of this human’s endeavour to constantly push his limits and speculate on what may happen next in the holy grail of athletics.
Get the latest reports & analysis with people's perspective on Protests, movements & deep analytical videos, discussions of the current affairs in your Telegram app. Subscribe to NewsClick's Telegram channel & get Real-Time updates on stories, as they get published on our website.