World marathon record holder Eliud Kipchoge is set to face a fierce battle from Ethiopia’s Kenenisa Bekele in this year’s London marathon set to be held on the 26th of April in Britain.
Kipchoge, who became the first man to run a sub-two-hour marathon in an unofficial race in Vienna, Austria in October last year, is seeking a record fifth London title.
Kipchoge has won 11 of the 12 marathons he has started, including the 2016 Olympics in Rio, and also has Olympic, world and commonwealth medals on the track and in cross country.
Bekele missed Kipchoge’s World record by two seconds when he completed the 2019 Berlin Marathon in 2 hours 01 minutes and 41 seconds.
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Bekele has three Olympic and five world championship golds over 10,000 and 5,000 meters, distances in which he still holds the world record, as well as an astonishing 11 cross country world championship golds.
Other athletes who have confirmed participation in this year’s race are Ethiopians Mosinet Geremew, Mule Wasihun and Shura Kitata who finished second, third and fourth respectively last year. Elsewhere,
Olympic and world 800m finalist Alfred Kipketer is the latest Kenyan athlete to be suspended by IAAF’s Athletics Integrity Unit for violating anti-doping rules.
Kipketer, the 2014 world under-20 800 meters champion and Rio 2016 Olympic finalist, has been charged with breaking ‘whereabouts’ anti-doping rules.
The 23-year-old Kenyan, who also claimed world youth gold in 2013 and raced in the 2015 senior world final in Beijing, has been provisionally suspended until his case has been heard and a final decision reached.