Eliud Kipchoge on why Berlin Marathon is essential as he prepares for Paris Olympics

ATHLETICS Eliud Kipchoge on why Berlin Marathon is essential as he prepares for Paris Olympics

Abigael Wafula 07:00 - 18.07.2023

In the Olympics, Kipchoge will be looking to become the first man to win three successive marathon titles.

Four-time London Marathon champion Eliud Kipchoge has disclosed that the Berlin Marathon is essential as he gets ready for the 2024 Paris Olympics since it will be a good time to gauge where his body is and it will also give him ample recovery time.

The Berlin Marathon is scheduled for Sunday, September 24 while the Olympics next year are set to begin on Friday, July 26, and run all the way to Sunday, August 11.

Kipchoge wants to make history by becoming the first man to win three Olympic marathon titles successively and he believes proper planning is the key to making his dream come true.

Only three men have back-to-back Olympic marathons including Ethiopia’s Abebe Bikila (1960, 1964), Germany’s Waldemar Cierpinski (1976, 1980), and Kipchoge himself (2016, 2021). No one has ever won three.

“I would be the first man to win back-to-back-to-back. I am really looking for that. That would be real, real history. Good organization and the timeframe are what make Berlin a good race to prepare for next year.

"I trust that with the timeframe, September towards next year is a good time to run Berlin, come back, have a race, start again, and I’ll have enough time to train,” Kipchoge said as per Letsrun.com.

Kipchoge has won four Berlin Marathon titles and he will be keen to make history also by winning his fifth title.

He has also broken the world record twice in those streets and there’s no other better place to restore his confidence after the Boston heartbreak than on the streets of the German capital.

“Berlin is like home for me. I’m going there for the sixth year. I think Berlin’s streets are loving me, that’s why I am going back there.

"All in all is that I am preparing for the Olympics next year in Paris. And I saw the only race which I can go back to Kenya to prepare a good race is only in Berlin,” he said.