SYDNEY — Twice Olympic marathon champion Eliud Kipchoge will run the Sydney Marathon in August, he said.
The 40-year-old Kenyan, who won back-to-back Olympic titles in 2016 and 2020, became in 2019 the first man to run a marathon in under two hours with a time of 1:59:40 in Vienna. That did not count as an official record, however, as standard competition rules were not in place.
“I’m so excited,” Kipchoge said according to Reuters. “This is not only my first time running the Sydney Marathon, but also my first time running in Oceania. Running in Australia is a great opportunity for me.”
He has a record of 16 wins in 21 officially ratified marathons, including 10 consecutive victories from 2014-19.
Kipchoge, who has run the second fastest official marathon ever with a time of 2:01:09, will take part in next month’s London Marathon before heading to Sydney.
Elsewhere, the London Marathon is set to break the world record for the most participants with over 56,000 runners expected to complete the April 27 race, organisers said. The current record of 55,646 finishers was set by the New York City Marathon last November.
London organisers said they had received a record 840,318 applications for the ballot to enter this year’s race, with just under half of the applications coming for women.
“The 45th edition is a landmark year for us, and it would be wonderful to mark that by becoming the biggest marathon ever staged anywhere in the world,” London Marathon CEO Hugh Brasher said in a statement recently.
Kenyan Kipchoge, the Olympic champion from Rio and Tokyo, returns to the race for the first time since 2020, while women’s world record holder Ruth Chepngetich and Olympic champion Sifan Hassan have also been confirmed for the event.
