Eliud Kipchoge continues to collect accolades and awards

Kenyan athlete Eliud Kipchoge was awarded the 2023 Princess of Asturias Sports Prize this Thursday as a “benchmark in world athletics” and “the best marathoner of all time”, according to the jury.

Eliud Kipchoge told EFE that receiving this award was an “absolute honor” and a motivation to “leave a legacy in this world through racing”.

Born on November 5, 1984 in Nandi County, Kenya, he won gold medals in the marathon at the 2016 Rio and 2020 Tokyo Olympics, and also won silver in the 5,000 meters in Beijing 2008 and bronze in Athens 2004.

Kipchoge, who is part of the Dutch NN Running Team, is the current absolute dominator of the marathon and is considered a legend of world athletics, as well as the best marathoner of all time.

In recent years, he managed to win fifteen out of eighteen tests of the discipline in which he competed and climbed to the top of the podium ten times at four so-called Great Marathons: Chicago (2014), London (2014). 2015, 2016, 2018 and 2019), Berlin (2015, 2017, 2018 and 2022) and Tokyo (2022).

Nicknamed “The Philosopher” for his strategic running skills and ability to focus, Kipchoge is the reigning Olympic marathon champion and also holds the world record in the event, with a time of 2:01:09, set at the Berlin Marathon in 2015. by then I had reduced the set time in this competition in 2018 by thirty seconds.

In addition, he is the only athlete to run a marathon in less than two hours, although the brand is not approved.

He did it in 2019 in Vienna, where he covered the 42.195 kilometer test in 1:59:40, a mark that is not listed as official because it is a test organized specifically to overcome the challenge, in which the athlete ran behind a vehicle that was touching the tempo, and it was also surrounded by seven “rabbits” placed in the shape of an arrow to protect it from the wind.

In this feat, the athlete also used special shoes designed by the brand that organized the challenge, the use of which was banned by the International Athletics Federation the following year.