Eliud Kipchoge will test his form for the first time after suffering defeat at the last London Marathon by racing at the Hamburg Marathon on April 11.
The reigning world marathon record holder suffered defeat the last time he took to the road on October 2020 in the streets of the United Kingdom capital.
The race was won by Ethiopian Shura Kitata with Kipchoge, who suffered a blocked ear, coming a distant eighth.
Before this defeat, Kipchoge’s only other lose was a second-place finish behind Wilson Kipsang at the 2013 Berlin Marathon, where Kipsang broke the world record.
It seems that Kipchoge, the undisputed world marathon super star, has fully recovered from the shock defeat after his team announced that he will be competing at the NN Mission Marathon which is barely under two months away.
But even so, Athletics Kenya (AK) will keenly be following the race and hope that no setback will arise considering that Kipchoge is in Team Kenya’s marathon squad.
The Hamburg Marathon will present Kipchoge with an opportunity to assess his form in the classic 42.2km distance ahead of the rescheduled Tokyo Olympics where he will seek to become the third man in history to claim back-to-back Olympic titles.
In 2019, Kipchoge who won the Olympic title in Rio, became the first human to run a sub-two-hour marathon at the INEOS 1:59 Challenge.
The Kenyan made history by running a full marathon in an incredible 1 hour, 59 minutes and 40 seconds on 12 October 2019 in Vienna.
Kipchoge has won a remarkable 11 out of 13 career marathons including an unprecedented four victories in London, three in Berlin and a Chicago Marathon title.
But it is in the Germany’s northern city of Hamburg where he kicked off a stellar career in the long distance with his maiden marathon victory in 2013.
“I am going back to the genesis of my marathon career,” he was quoted in a press release sent to the media by NN Running Team.
The race which will be run under the theme “The fastest way to Tokyo” will take place around a looped 10.5km city centre route and it is expected to attract around 100 invited elite athletes.
The one-off marathon has been organized to serve up an opportunity for athletes to run a fast race and in many cases to help secure a qualification mark for the rescheduled Tokyo Olympic
Games.
Kipchoge re-started gym work back in December and started full training from his camp in Kaptagat in January.
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