Eliud Kipchoge on the verge of setting another record in Berlin Marathon

Kenya’s Eliud Kipchoge will be the highlight when he makes his highly anticipated return to the BMW Berlin Marathon, a World Athletics Elite Platinum road race, on Sunday.

Kipchoge is back and eager to leave a mark at the place where he set a world record of 2:01:39 in 2018.

“Berlin is a very good place where a human being can actually push limits. I still have to come back to Berlin to try and push limits,” he told World Athletics.

“I can’t say it will be a world record but I want to run a good race – be it a world record, be it a personal best, be it a good race. If all goes well and it is a personal best, a world record, then I will celebrate.”

Since that remarkable record four years ago, the 37-year-old returns to race in Berlin for the first time.

The two-time Olympic champion also holds an unofficial marathon best of 1:59:41 following the non-record eligible INEOS 1:59 Challenge time trial in Vienna in 2019.

He believes that he has been a trailblazer for the next generations in the sport and that one day a human being can run a full marathon under 2 hours on the clock.

“I trust that I have shown the way to many athletes, to the next generation, that one day a human being will run under two hours on a normal course, like Berlin or somewhere else,” added Kipchoge, who won the Enschede Marathon and his second Olympic marathon last year and then returned to Japan in March to win the Tokyo Marathon in 2:02:40.

“I don’t think I am going to Berlin to run under two hours, but I am going to Berlin to run a very good race that will make everybody inspired and love marathons.”

Kipchoge will be seeking to bag another Berlin Marathon victory after he won the 2015 and 2017 events in the streets of Berlin.

His victory on Sunday could see him tie with the Ethiopian sensation Haile Gebrselassie, who won four consecutive Berlin Marathon titles between 2006 and 2009.

However, Kipchoge will have to deal with competition from other elite runners among them defending champion Guye Adola, who recorded 2:05:45 in last year’s race.