Kelvin Kiptum explains his thoughts while running to break marathon record

ATHLETICS Kelvin Kiptum explains his thoughts while running to break marathon record

Abigael Wafula 09:16 - 17.10.2023

After his dominant display at the Chicago Marathon, Kelvin Kiptum shared what was going on in his mind during the race.

Newly crowned World Marathon record holder Kelvin Kiptum has shared what was going through his mind as he went on to break the world record at the Chicago Marathon.

The 23-year-old clocked 2:00:35 to completely shatter Eliud Kipchoge’s world record time of 2:01:09 that he set during the 2022 Berlin Marathon.

Speaking during his homecoming party, Kiptum explained heading into the race, he was anticipating to run a Personal Best time and the world record was not in his mind.

The Chicago Marathon is also not a suitable course for a world record and that had also put him off from lowering Kipchoge’s time.

“At that time, I knew I was going to run maybe under the course record and set a new Personal Best time.

"However, towards the last 100m, I saw the frontline and I knew I was going to run a world record and I kept pushing and I was so happy about it,” he explained.

During the race, Kiptum broke away from a seven-strong lead group after reaching 5km in 14:26, joined only by his compatriot Daniel Mateiko, who was making his marathon debut.

As reported by World Athletics, they were on a world record pace at 10km and passed in 28:42, but the tempo dropped a little from that point and they reached halfway in 1:00:48.

After 30km was passed in 1:26:31, Kiptum kicked and dropped Mateiko. A blistering 5km split of 13:51 took him to the 35km checkpoint in 1:40:22 and he was on sub-2:01 pace.

He then passed the 40km mark in 1:54:23 – after a 27:52 10km split – and sped up further, storming over the finish line with the incredible figures of 2:00:35 on the clock.

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