Kipchoge will look for this Saturday to get off the 2 hours in marathon
After his first attempt at Monza in 2017, the Kenyan will try to break that barrier in Vienna with the help of 41 'hares'
Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge , world marathon record holder (2:01:39), will definitely try this Saturday to be the first athlete to run a marathon in less than two hours.
According to Mundo Deportivo, the organizers of the challenge that aims to break the two-hour wall - one of the mythical barriers of athletics - have definitively set the race for this Saturday due to the favorable weather conditions.
" The current conditions of temperature, humidity, wind and lack of precipitation seem optimal for this Saturday morning ," said Robby Ketchell, meteorologist for the Ineos 1:59 team, the race sponsor.
Totally flat circuit
The race, in which he will run alone but supported by 41 'reares', will take place in Vienna's Prater park, on a completely flat 9,6-kilometer circuit , the vast majority of which is straight.
It will be 4,3 kilometers one way and many others back. At both ends there are two large roundabouts that have been adapted to avoid any unevenness.
Now that the date is set, the countdown to the race begins and Kipchoge has already adapted his food for the test after arriving in Vienna on Tuesday from Kenya.
The record will not be homologated
The 34 year-old athlete has only been defeated once in a total of eleven marathons - with a second place in Berlin 2013 - and holds the world record, with 2h: 01: 39, a mark that the Ethiopian Kenenisa Bekele stayed 2 seconds after breaking in the Berlin marathon last September 29.
If the well-known two-hour wall is broken, the record will not be officially recognized because it does not meet the conditions of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), although the mark will remain in the history of athletics.
You will have 41 hares to get it
A total of 41 top-level 'pacers', including the three Norwegian Ingebrigtsen brothers - Henrik, Filip and Jakob - will take turns in the race to help him maintain the necessary pace.
This will be the second time Kipchoge has attempted to be the first to run a marathon in under two hours .
Two years ago, the 5 of May of 2017 in the Italian circuit of Monza, Kipchoge already ran the fastest marathon in history, culminating with a non-homologated mark of 2h00: 25
