It could be the end of Eliud Kipchoge's reign in marathons as we know it, as the track legend recently hinted at hanging up his professional running shoes.
Kipchoge, considered the greatest marathoner of all time, recently did an interview with Olympics.com where he suggested this could be the last year he is taking part in elite competition.
After a professional career spanning more than two decades, 40-year-old Kipchoge will instead shift his art to more noble causes, rather than going for glory in competitive races.
“I think I’ll be going around the world to run in big city marathons for a cause: for education and for conservation,” Kipchoge revealed. “But above all, I’m still having one more year.”
Kipchoge's comments will likely come as a bittersweet revelation to his millions of fans globally, whose only source of comfort is the fact that he will still be on the tracks for the foreseeable future, albeit in uncompetitive events.
His sixth-place finish in the London marathon on April 27 also signified the end of an era, as the marathoner confirmed he would not compete in London again. Kipchoge has won the London Marathon four times.
Besides four London marathon wins, Kipchoge has also won the Berlin marathon five times, including one where he set a world record time of 2:01:09 at the time. That time remains the second-fastest official time ever in marathons.
More notably, Kipchoge etched his name in the history books by becoming the only human being to complete a marathon in under two hours after clocking 1:59:40 in Vienna in 2019.
In his prime, Kipchoge was also a force at the Olympics, where he won gold in Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020. After all the glory, Kipchoge insists he has nothing left to prove and is now focused on more purposeful running.
“I am not competing with anybody at all. I’m competing with myself, my message, my values... I’m running with the values of sport. I’m running with the values of humanity," he added.
At the back of Kipchoge's disappointing sixth-place finish at the London marathon, he revealed that his next marathon assignment would be at the Sydney marathon in August 2025.
Asked whether there was any hope of taking part in the next Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028, Kipchoge said, "Not really. I think I'd have a lot of work to do."
