What is the "King of Marathons"? Kipchoge used his strength to give the best answer.
On March 6, Beijing time, at his first Tokyo Marathon, Kipchoge won the championship with a time of 2 hours, 02 minutes and 40 seconds, and broke the race record, while also creating the third fastest time of his career at the age of 37.
Since winning his first marathon title in Hamburg in 2013, Kipchoge has won four of the world's six Grand Slams in 10 years with 16-14 wins. But Kipchoge also wants to win more — he wants to win not only all six Grand Slams, but also three consecutive Olympic titles in Paris.
"I still have something boiling in my body, which is why I'm looking forward to keeping running." Kipchoge said, "There is no limit to human beings. ”
Kipchoge was the first to cross the finish line. This article picture CFP
A victory without suspense
For Kipchoge, it was a familiar and unfamiliar game.
The familiar reason is that this is not kipchoger's first time in Japan to play. More than seven months ago, he defended his title at the Tokyo Olympics with a time of 2 hours 08 minutes and 38 seconds, winning his second Olympic gold medal. Now standing on the tokyo stage, Kipchoge is a "back-to-back" play in Japan.
The strange reason is that Kipchoge is standing on the track of the Tokyo Marathon for the first time. Before the Tokyo Olympics, the venue and route of the marathon event were completely different from those of the Tokyo Marathon.
When Kipchoge announced his participation in the Tokyo Marathon in February this year, a number of masters were eyeing the championship, including the 2020 Tokyo Marathon champion Behanu Leggs, who belonged to the NN running group with Kipchoge, and Ethiopian star Mosinette Geremus, as well as Kenyan masters.
But Kipchoger's dominance remains unshakable — at the end of February, Kipchoge's team came to Tokyo a week early for adaptive training; three days before the race, Kipchoge announced his crazy plan to win all six Grand Slam titles; and at the pre-match press conference, when everyone wondered how Kipchoge would predict his results, Kipchoge simply wrote the word "STRONG".
There was an episode in the race: the guide car led the wrong way, causing the first group of players to be forced to turn around. Video source: @Sina Run (00:09)
After the starting gun, Kipchoge did perform very strongly from the start. At the first 5 km time point, he and the first group were ahead of the world record he held by as many as 10 seconds; by 10 km, the lead was stretched to 24 seconds; and halfway through the run, Kipchoge's speed was adjusted, but he was still 3 seconds ahead of his own record.
By 27 km, Kipchoge's endurance and speed advantages became more and more obvious, and there were only 3 people left in the originally huge first group; by 35 km, although Kipchoge had fallen behind the world record by 18 seconds, he had no opponents around him, and Kipru, the only one who had followed him before, began to fall behind.
In this way, Kipchoge was the first to cross the finish line without any challenge, and the first appearance in the Tokyo Marathon broke the record, according to statistics, this is also the fastest record of all marathons in Japan.
Kipchoge still maintains a very high level of competition.
"For running, he can withstand any training"
Compared to tall and strong basketball stars, top marathon runners often look not much different from ordinary people, or even thinner.
It has always been difficult for the marathon world to produce world-class stars, but Kipchoge is a special case. The tall, introverted runner with a soft-spoken voice broke out of the marathon circle in 10 years of running and became a world-class sports icon.
The American running media "Runner's World" once gave Kipchoge the highest evaluation: "Fate has given Kipchoge a good hand, he has excellent physiological conditions, and every gram of weight has been played to the extreme." But it was only in the closing stages of the marathon, when he soared a pace of 2 minutes and 47 seconds per kilometer, that people could feel its incredible strength. ”
The reason why it can achieve the greatness of the "king of the marathon" is also due to Kipchoge's efforts and persistence in training, as well as scientific training preparations.
"I believe that humans have no limits because I keep running, and every week I run 200 km to 230 km. Results are the best reflection of training results. Kipchoge said.
Kipchoge won the gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics.
But he also does not deny the existence of talent: "Whether it is running or other fields, you must have talent, but talent is only part, you also need enthusiasm, when you have enthusiasm and focus on something, you will insist on training and challenge." 」 ”
In the eyes of coach Patrick Sang, the most emblematic manifestation of "enthusiasm" in Kipchoge is the self-discipline and diligence that is different from ordinary people.
Having worked with Kipchog for over 20 years, Patrick Sang still remembers that when there was no coaching supervision at first, Kipchoge always completed all the training plans by himself, and then went to the coach and asked him for a new training plan...
"I've never met someone who loves running so much and is so disciplined." Patrick Sang once left this sentiment in an exclusive interview with the reporter of the www.thepaper.cn, "For the sake of running, he can withstand any kind of training." ”
As he grew older, Kipchoge, 37, has tightly controlled his frequency of matches over the years. For the most part, Kipchoge maintains the rhythm of "two races a year", and even if he is old, he can still show his dominance every time he stands on the track.
Kipchoge is still working towards his grand goals.
Goal: Six Grand Slams + Three Olympic Titles
After crushing the Tokyo Marathon and setting a marathon record in Japan, Kipchoge was one step closer to his crazy goal of winning six Grand Slams.
This is the goal that Kipchoge officially announced only before the Tokyo Marathon. Prior to that, he had won three of the six Grand Slam titles – the Berlin Marathon, the Chicago Marathon, the London Marathon , and held the berlin and London record.
Today, Kipchoge, who has won four Grand Slam events, only the Boston Marathon and the New York Marathon have two races to fight for.
According to the plan of his team and his NN running group, if not affected by the epidemic, Kipchoge is likely to be able to complete this unprecedented great plan before the Paris Olympics.
For Kipchoge, the sooner the goal is completed, the better. On the one hand, although Kipchoge is "older and more demon", age will eventually affect his training and competition; on the other hand, Kipchoge has another goal, that is, to fight for the triple Olympic championship.
Kipchoge hopes to complete a triple-title at the Paris Olympics.
From Athens to Beijing, from Rio to Tokyo, Kipchoge has won two consecutive titles in his four Olympic trips, but he also hopes to be able to stand on the Olympic stage for the fifth time: "There is still something boiling in my body, that's why I'm looking forward to keep running, I still want to run, I want to be the first person to win three consecutive titles in an Olympic marathon." ”
If Kipchoge does stand on the stage and win the Paris Olympics, he will rewrite Olympic history – in addition to becoming the first athlete to win the Olympic marathon three times, he will also surpass the 2008 Beijing Olympic women's marathon champion, then 38-year-old Romanian athlete Tita, to become the oldest Olympic marathon gold medalist.
"There is no limit to human beings." This is the belief that Kipchoge has always believed. But the reason why he was able to achieve the greatness of the "King of Marathon" in 10 years is not only this belief, but also his persistence and extreme love for running.
Kipchoge also hopes that this love will inspire more people: "My motivation is to inspire the world, I love running, I love it. ”