‘No human is limited’: Kipchoge runs sub-2 hour marathon
VIENNA — Roger Bannister, 1954. Neil Armstrong, 1969. Eliud Kipchoge, 2019?
Like the sub-four minute mile and walking on the moon, running a marathon in less than two hours had seemed impossible — until Saturday. So when Olympic champion Kipchoge broke the barrier, the question arose as to where to rank his achievement in historical context.
The 34-year-old Kenyan completed the 42.195 kilometres (26.2 miles) in 1 hour, 59 minutes, 40.2 seconds at the INEOS 1:59 Challenge, an event set up for the attempt.
Ahead of the event, Kipchoge even compared the feat to being “like the first man on the moon.” Afterward, he drew comparisons to Bannister, the late Briton who 65 years ago became the first athlete to run a mile in under four minutes.