Kenyan born Eliud Kipchoge sets a new historical record as first person to complete a marathon run in under two hours.

ICMS, Inc Reports

By Tom Okure, PhD

Eliud Kipchoge on Saturday October 12, 2019 did not disappoint his native country Kenya, his fans or his sponsors INEOS as he set a new historical record by becoming the first person to complete a marathon run in under two hours.

Eliud Kipchoge who is 34 years and currently the world Olympic marathon champion successfully completed a specially prepared course for him in one hour 59:40 minutes around Vienna’s Prater Park. The run started at 08:15 on the Reichsbrücke bridge that spans the Danube before winding through to the Austrian capital's iconic Prater Park. During the run, Kipchoge averaged about 2.50 minutes per kilometer.

The British chemical company INEOS organized and funded the run labelled and intensively promoted as the INEOS 1.59 challenge. The whole country of Kenya has been on nerves with heightened excitement awaiting the result of this run. This was Kipchoge’s second attempt to break the barrier, having failed to accomplish the challenge by 26 seconds in Monza. 

During the Vienna’s Prater Park run, Kipchoge was directed by seven man rotating teams of pacesetters, who are renowned athletes in their own right. There was also an electric pace car which shone green lasers onto the track. Kipchoge ran amazingly consistently achieving one-kilometre times fluctuating between 2.48 and 2.52 seconds and reaching the halfway target point of the run in 59.35 seconds, 11 seconds inside the track.

Eliud Kipchoge was seen pounding his chest and pointing to the crowd in joy as he advanced towards the finish line, and becoming the first man in marathon history to cover the 26.2 mile marathon distance in under two hours. At the end of the run, Kipchoge said "I am the happiest man in the world to be the first human to run under two hours and I can tell people that no human is limited. I expect more people all over the world to run under two hours after today."

Despite this outstanding human accomplishment, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) indicates that it cannot recognize the run as an official record because it was not achieved in an open competition. Nevertheless, IAAF president Sebastian Coe welcomed the record attempt.

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All rights reserved by Tom Okure, Ph.D President and CEO of Inter-Continental Mgt. Systems, Inc (or ICMS, Inc). The information included in this article may not be used, reproduced, transmitted, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written permission of ICMS, Inc. The author Dr. Tom Okure is President of ICMS, Inc, a multifaceted business and management consulting firm with its head office in Albany, New York. Dr. Okure is a writer, author, business/management consultant, public policy advisor and commentator and a change advocate.