Behind athletes’ rich athletic CVs lie years of sorrow, strife, and perseverance. Much is mentioned of any athlete that makes that break to stardom, but little is spoken of their years of little beginning — their years in “Adullam.” Many of today’s icons in sports had their fair share of struggles and Kenya’s Eluid Kipchoge is no exception.
Growing up in a family of five, with no memory of his father, things must have been tough for the lad from Kapsisiywa, Nandi County, in Kenya. The difficulty of his childhood was bolstered by the fact Eluid’s mother Janet Rotich was a low-earning nursery school teacher. The odds of success were stacked against Kipchoge; from a very young age he was forced into labour, becoming a farm boy to substitute his widowed mother’s income, which could hardly afford to feed her five sons.
Though stuck in the societal trap of unending poverty, Kipchoge was surrounded with a silver lining — one which would eventually have a huge impact on his successes on the grandest of stages: he had to run two miles daily.
Growing up, running for Kipchoge was functional, as school was quite a distance from home. Schoolchildren in Kenya often run long distances without thinking anything about it, and he would run to school and back every day, repeating the journey at lunch too.
“You don’t know you are running because it is a must,” said Kipchoge to the BBC in 2020.
The Wind of Change
In 2002, Kipchoge’s life would change forever. At the ripe age of 18, the Nandi County teen met Patrick Sang, a Kenyan steeplechase runner. Sang, who remains Kipchoge’s coach to this day, offered him a training plan to channel his obvious talent — a talent that he had inadvertently developed through a childhood of ceaseless running.
It wasn’t long after Kipchoge teamed up with his new coach that he won the Kenyan trials for the 2002 IAAF World Cross Country Championships junior race. Thus, the success story began. In 2003, Kipchoge recorded his first major win, narrowly defeating Morocco’s Hicham El Guerrouj in the 5,000 meters at that year’s world championship.
That same year, he came fifth in the World Cross Country Championship held in Dublin and was involved in the Kenyan junior team that won gold.
At the 2003 Bislett Games, Eliud Kipchoge set a world junior record in the 5000m with a finished record of 12:52:61 minutes. Until 2012, his record stood as the world and African junior record.
Kipchoge followed this streak of success with an Olympic bronze for Kenya in the 2004 Athens Olympics and a bronze in the 3000 meter race at the 2006 World Indoor Championship, held in Moscow. That same year, at the annual New Year’s Eve 10 km road race, San Silvestre Vallecana, Eliud Kipchoge finally bagged another major gold medal, running a record time of 26:54 minutes, beating his own personal best by 40 seconds.
And as Kipchoge’s fame began to spread, so did his records on the track. A five-time World Championship 5000m finalist, Kipchoge took silver medals at the 2007 World Championships, 2008 Beijing Olympics, and 2010 Commonwealth Games. Held in Osaka, Japan, Kipchoge’s silver in the 2007 World Championships 5000m race was earned with a time of 13:46:00 minutes coming behind USA’s Bernard Lagat. Beating this time in the ‘08 Olympic games, completing the race in 13:02:80 minutes, Kipchoge was unfortunately bested again, this time by Ethiopian runner Kenenisa Bekele’s winning time of 12.57.82 minutes.
Half Marathon Debut and World Records
With a bright future on the tracks for Kipchoge, things looked even brighter when the athlete made the switch to road running in 2013 and earned the second-fastest half marathon debut ever, at 59:25 minutes. On his marathon debut, he won the 2013 Hamburg Marathon in a course record time and his first victory at a World Marathon Major came the following year at the Chicago Marathon in 2014. After which, Kipchoge went on to become series champion for four consecutive years in 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019.
The marathon success of the farm boy from Kenya translated into the Olympics, as he clinched the Summer Olympics gold medal in the marathon in 2016. His 2017 title was won at the Berlin Marathon, with a record of 2:03:32 hours in September that year.
After participating in the 2018 London Marathon, and winning, Kipchoge then set a new time record of 2:01:39 hours at the 2018 Berlin Marathon, breaking the previous world record by 1 minute and 18 seconds. Due to his outstanding performance in the 2018 season, Kipchoge received numerous awards and accolades, honoured as the IAAF World Athlete of the Year.
The following year, in the same fashion, Eliud Kipchoge came first in the 2019 London Marathon with a time record of 2:02:37 hours, making it the second-fastest marathon of all time. Later that year, he participated in the Ineos 1:59 Challenge, the sub-two-hour marathon, where Guinness World Records recognized his achievement in the race with two different titles — ‘Fastest marathon distance (male)’ and ‘First marathon distance run under two hours.’
Losing his streak in 2020, Kipchoge’s 8th placing in the London Marathon, with a time of 2:06:49, was quickly overshadowed by his comeback at the Tokyo Olympics that year. Kipchoge picked up his second Olympic gold medal in the marathon at the Tokyo games, becoming the third man after Cierpinski and Ethiopian legend Abebe Bikila (1960, 1964) to win back-to-back Olympic marathon gold medals.
In an interview with NBC in July 2022, Kipchoge said he may continue racing after the 2024 Olympics and into his 40s. The sporting world is in for years more of Eliud Kipchoge’s speed, and that’s a treat if there ever is one.
Eliud Kipchoge: Records, titles, and stats:
2 – World titles: Kipchoge won the 2003 Junior World Cross Country title and 5000m gold at the 2003 World Athletics Championships.
2 – Marathon losses: The Kenyan finished second at the 2013 Berlin Marathon and 8th at the 2020 London Marathon
3 – Berlin Marathon titles: Kipchoge won the Berlin race in 2015, 2017, and 2018.
4 – Olympic Games appearances
4 – Olympic medals: Kipchoge clinched 5000m bronze at Athens 2014, 5000m silver at Beijing 2008, and claimed marathon gold at Rio 2016 and at Tokyo 2020.
4 – London Marathon titles: He won the London race in 2015, 2016, 2018, and 2019.
6 – Medals won at World Athletics Championships, World Cross Country Championships, and World Indoor Championships.
10 – Marathons won in a row: Kipchoge did not lose a race between 2014 and 2019.
11 – Kipchoge has ran 2:05:00 or faster in a marathon on 11 occasions and that excludes the unofficial races in Monza and Vienna.
18 – The age when he claimed his first major title at the 2003 World Athletics Championships (5000m gold).
20 – The number of years Kipchoge has raced internationally.
28 – The age when he switched to the roads.
63 – Weeks spent as world number one in the men’s marathon.
Some of his most impressive times
12:52.61 – Kipchoge’s first ever world record as he managed the fastest 5000m time by a junior at the 2003 Bislett Games.
59:25 – His personal best in the half marathon in 2012.
1:26:45 – En route to winning the 2018 Berlin Marathon he ran the fastest-ever time at the 30km mark
1:59.40 -The time he clocked when he became the first man to break the two-hour barrier for the marathon in 2019 in Vienna.
2:01:39 – His world record time at the 2018 Berlin Marathon.
2:05:30 – His marathon debut time at the 2013 Hamburg Marathon was also a course record.
*Records and stats courtesy of www.olympics.com
Must See
-
Basketball
/ 9 months agoWho Will Define the Next Generation of the NBA?
We are in a new era of basketball, centered around high volume of 3-point...
By Samson Osaze -
Flos Live
/ 10 months agoFLOS’ FIVE: Unforgettable Moments from the ‘Happy Slam’ Downunder
The Australian Open, often affectionately dubbed the “Happy Slam” in the eloquent words of...
By Samson Osaze -
American Football
/ 10 months agoFLOS’ Five: Super Bowl LVIII Predictions
The 2023/24 NFL season brimmed with captivating storylines, breakout stars, struggling favourites, and unexpected...
By Samson Osaze -
Football
/ 2 years agoAfrican Super League: What You Need to Know
The President of the Confederation of African football (CAF), Dr. Patrice Motsepe announced the...