1:59 Challenge: Debate over sub two-hour marathon in normal race rekindled

From left to right: Ethiopia's Dawit Wolde, Netherlands' Abdi Nageeye and Belgium's Abdi Bashir with moderator Marc Cortsjens of Golazo during a pre-race press conference on April 14 ahead of the Rotterdam Marathon that runs on Sunday, April 16.

Photo credit: Elias Makori | Nation Media Group

What you need to know:

  • And with Eliud Kipchoge’s Boston Marathon debut keenly awaited on Monday, elite marathoners are eagerly waiting to see what the G.O.A.T. has up his sleeves, with a sub two-hour finish on Boylston Street not entirely out of question.
  • The Boston Marathon is the world’s oldest marathon with Monday’s race celebrating its 127th anniversary.

In Rotterdam, The Netherlands

The spring marathons season is here with Sunday’s Rotterdam Marathon and Monday’s action in Boston this weekend’s top draws.

Then the London Marathon also reverts to its spring calendar date with NTV once again broadcasting this race live next Sunday (April 23) with another huge street viewing party lined up on Uganda Road, Eldoret, courtesy of the Nation Media Group.

And with Eliud Kipchoge’s Boston Marathon debut keenly awaited on Monday, elite marathoners are eagerly waiting to see what the G.O.A.T. has up his sleeves, with a sub two-hour finish on Boylston Street not entirely out of question.

The Boston Marathon is the world’s oldest marathon with Monday’s race celebrating its 127th anniversary.

It traditionally starts at the rural New England town of Hopkington finishing on Boylston Street just outside the Boston Public Library.

World record times clocked on this largely downhill, point-to-point course aren’t officially recognised by World Athletics mainly because of the course’s overall decrease in elevation which stands at about 3.33 metres per kilometre which is outside the permissible average of one metre per kilometre.

Kenya’s Geoffrey Mutai holds the Boston course record at two hours, three minutes and two seconds set in 2011, with Kipchoge expected to lower the mark on his way to winning all five World Marathon Majors races.

Having won in Tokyo, London, Chicago and Berlin, only Monday’s Boston Marathon and November’s New York City Marathon remain in his cross-hairs.

But can he dip under two hours on Monday?

Three of the top athletes lining up at Sunday’s Rotterdam Marathon – Dutchman Abdi Nageeye, Belgian Abdi Bashir and Ethiopia’s Dawit Wolde – hold different views on the possibility of a sub two-hour marathon in a normal race.

Kipchoge became the first man to dip under the two-hour mark when he clocked 1:59:40 at the specially arranged “Ineos 1:59 Challenge” in Vienna in 2019.

But Nageeye, 34, who holds the Dutch marathon record at 2:04:56 clocked in last year’s Rotterdam Marathon, argues that a sub two-hour marathon is an ordinary race “is about five or more years away.”

“There are very few athletes in the league of Eliud Kipchoge and Ethiopia’s Kenenisa Bekele who are capable of doing this,” Nageeye, Olympic silver medalist behind Kipchoge in Tokyo and who sometimes trains in Kenya, responded to Nation Sport.

“But (with due respect to Kenenisa) I don’t see anyone with the discipline like that of Eliud who can break two hours in the next five years.”

But Wolde, 32, begged to differ, maintaining that a sub two-hour marathon in normal competition “is round the corner,” singling out Kenyan Kelvin Kiptum as one to watch.

The 23-year-old Kiptum stunned the running world by cruising to the third fastest time ever (2:01:53) at last December’s Valencia Marathon, placing him only behind Kipchoge (2:01:09) and Bekele (2:01:41) on the all-time list.

“It (sub two-hour marathon) is round the corner… Kiptum is one of the guys who can go for that record… he ran alone a 60:18 second half in Valencia which was amazing!”, Wolde third in the 2021 Rotterdam Marathon argued.

But Nageeye interjected, maintaining that only the athlete with Kipchoge’s discipline can break the barrier.

“The problem with many athletes is that after one fine performance, they party and never recover. But for Eliud, after a major victory, the following day at 8am he is back in training,” he argued.

Bashir, 34, bronze medalist behind Kipchoge and Nageeye at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, also feels a sub 2:00 time in normal competition is a long stretch away.

Nageeye, Bashir and Wolde are the top runners in tomorrow’s Rotterdam Marathon whose Kenyan entry includes 2022 Abu Dhabi and Melbourne champion Timothy Kiplangat.

Bashir is the fastest in the field with a personal best time of 2:03:36 clocked here in 2021, and which is also the current European record.

Other Kenyans on the men’s start list are Kenneth Kipkemoi, fifth here last year, and Mathew Sang, third in last year’s Malaga Marathon in Spain.

Temoi Kipsang will be making his debut.

About 50,000 are expected to run in Rotterdam in this weekend’s race organised by Belgium’s sports management company Golazo with the women’s field led by Ethiopia’s course record holder Tiki Gelana (2:18:58) who is making a comeback after a long injury layoff.

Lisbon Marathon champion Bornes Kitur and Eindhoven Marathon title holder Pascalia Jepkogei are the two Kenyan women on the roster with Bahrain’s Kenya-born pair of Rose Chelimo and Eunice Chumba also in action.

“Rotterdam has been good to me and I’m happy to make a comeback here expecting another fine performance,” Gelana, 36, said.