Tola Shura Kitata, Eliud Kipchoge, Mo Farah, 2018 Virgin Money London Marathon, photo from Virgin Money London Marathon
Vivian Cheruiyot, 2018 Virgin Money London Marathon champion, photo courtesy of Jane Monti, RRW, used with permission
The Boston and London marathons were two different ends of the meteorological spectrum. In Boston, the cold decimated the fields, and in London, it was the heat. In this wrap up, Andy Edwards put much of the two elite races together in this column, considering the fine racing by Eliud Kipchoge and Vivian Cheruiyot, who lead 41,000 of their closest friends through the streets of London.
Eliud Kipchoge keeps his promise to London for “A Beautiful Race”
By Andy Edwards, Race News Service
Sunday, April 22
He said it would be a beautiful race and Eliud Kipchoge was as good as his word. Dramatic, fascinating and marathon running as a contest as good as it gets in terms of wondering, what is going to happen next?
Just before the men’s post-race press conference began, the Olympic Marathon champion’s coach Patrick Sang said of Kipchoge: “Today I would credit him as a guy who came to perform to the best of his abilities. Coming out of Monza’s experience last year, he believed that a human is not limited as an athlete and I think that times are not limiting factors in his mind.”
While many observers looked at the temperature gauge and thought that the projected halfway split for the leading men’s group of 61:01 was folly, Kipchoge and his rivals just got on with the job. That included Mo Farah, who was understandably upbeat sitting alongside the man who has a strong claim to be the best marathon runner ever: “The field today, you couldn’t get a better field and to finish third, run a personal best, a British record, I can’t do better than that.”
After breaking Steve Jones’ UK record with 2:06:21, Farah was justifiably pleased with his performance in his second marathon. He radiated a sense of the road to an Olympic marathon challenge in Tokyo in 2020 was a realistic target. Confusion over a missed water bottle early on could be consigned to the learning curve and it was Mo Farah, marathon runner, who looked confidently ahead: “It taken me years on the track to win medals. Over time I hope to learn and get it right in the marathon.”
Eliud Kipchoge’s third win in London, running 2:04:17 in challenging conditions, confirmed he remains the number one. On the day that the current world record holder, fellow Kenyan Dennis Kimetto, dropped out in Vienna, Kipchoge’s coach Patrick Sang expressed a belief that the best for Kipchoge is still to come: “I think he is yet to realise his full potential because he does not believe in limits. Under normal conditions I think the world record is just a matter of time, he has the abilities.”
Vivian Cheruiyot was still digesting the measure of her progress at the post-race press conference: not only winning the London title, a year after finishing fourth here on her marathon debut, but taking more than five minutes off her best to run 2:18:31, becoming the fourth fastest of all time: “I was so happy to run 2:18 because I did 2:23 here and again in Frankfurt [to win the women’s title last October]. To go from 2:23 to 2:18 is really impressive. I’m catching up with the marathon now.”
Cheruiyot held back from the ferocious early pace set by Mary Keitany and Tirunesh Dibaba, keen to avoid her mistake of a year ago when she suffered for going with what proved too fast a tempo: “I ran too quick and was kaput. So today my manager and my husband and I calculated that I should run slowly for 69 minutes at halfway and I was strong.”
After a bucketful of Olympic and World Championship medals, Vivian Cheruiyot moved in the space of just over two hours in the top firmament of women’s road running.
