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Berlin Marathon 2021 - Bekele's attempt at World Record

Ender

By Ender,
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Bekele's Attempt at World Record  

8 members have voted

  1. 1. Can he break it?

    • Yes
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    • No
      3
    • DNF - Did Not Finish due to some problem.
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  • Poll closed on 09/26/2021 at 09:05 AM

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Spring

Spring

Moderator
3 hours ago, Karoon said:

Fyi, the current marathon WR of 2h 2min ~ 6m 58s for each 2.4km.

Madness to sustain this kind of pace over 42km👍 Inhuman to say the least👏

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Spring

Spring

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I would love to see the record broken but just feel that Bekele is past his best though admittedly I’ve not followed him closely but my feel is based on him not being part of any significant success for awhile now and he has been comfortably eclipsed by Kipchoge.

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Arogab

Arogab

Turbocharged
7 minutes ago, Spring said:

I would love to see the record broken but just feel that Bekele is past his best though admittedly I’ve not followed him closely but my feel is based on him not being part of any significant success for awhile now and he has been comfortably eclipsed by Kipchoge.

If this time he don't break. I think no chance liao. In fact at this age still can break is a wonder to me. But I just hope he breaks it for the sake of seeing a record broken. 

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Newbie26

Newbie26

Hypersonic
On 9/24/2021 at 5:37 PM, Ender said:

 

https://olympics.com/en/featured-news/kenenisa-bekele-headlines-2021-berlin-marathon-on-world-record-course

Kenenisa Bekele headlines 2021 Berlin Marathon on 'world record course'

For most of the runners who weren't at the Tokyo Olympics, Berlin will be the first main marathon since the start of the COVID pandemic.

All eyes in the German capital will be on triple Olympic champion Kenenisa Bekele.

Will the second fastest man ever chase a world record on the quickest marathon course on earth?

The 39-year-old Ethiopian missed the mark of 2:01:39 set by Eliud Kipchoge in 2018 by just two seconds in 2019, and the world record could be a target again on Sunday 26 September.

His coach told Olympics.com that Bekele has still a lot left in his tank:

“This time he goes hoping for better results and he is better prepared than he was in the last race in Berlin,” said coach Haji Adelo.

“He’s healthy and is in great shape and form. He is confident of the race coming this weekend.”

The Berlin Marathon is the first of six World Marathon Majors that will be contested in autumn this year.

World record under attack?

A year after Kipchoge shattered the world record by an imposing one minute 18 seconds at the German capital in 2018, Bekele nearly bettered that mark.

The then world record holder in both the 5000m and 10,000m (which he held between 2004-2020), returned to the familiar Berlin course in 2019.

He was a man on a mission.

Out of three starts in the city where he had only won once - in 2016 (2:03.03) - Bekele ran one of his best races. But he “painfully” missed the world record.

“I missed by seconds…two seconds. To miss the world record in the marathon by two seconds...you know two seconds? It's crazy! It was painful,” Bekele told Olympics.com in April 2020.

His winning time of 2:01.41 improved his personal record by nearly two minutes.

“I knew the world record was not easy, it was far off from my personal best. I just focused on running my personal best on that day.

"I didn’t really focus on the record. I think that’s why I missed it.- Kenenisa Bekele

“Maybe, I also made some mistakes during the race. With two kilometres to go, I should have focused on the record. But I didn't."

His coach Adelo, whom he began working with before that race in 2019, feels Bekele is in even better shape now.

“Previously when he ran in Berlin, he was not targeting the world record, he only realised in the last few kilometres that he was in world record pace,” Adelo, considered one of the best long-distance coaches in the world, told Olympics.com from Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa,.

“But this time he goes hoping for better results and he is better prepared than he was in the last race in Berlin.”- Kenenisa Bekele's coach Haji Adelo.

The most decorated cross-country runner has an opportunity to right the wrongs from his last 42km race.

He pulled out of the 2020 London marathon with injury.

Then in 2021 he was again left out of the Ethiopian Olympic squad for Tokyo.

A huge blow for the 39-year-old, who had hoped to compete at what may have been his fourth and last Games.

Two marathons in 42 days?

Berlin will be Bekele’s first race in nearly 18 months.

He hasn’t competed since winning the London Big half marathon in March 2020 in a course record.

His last marathon was the Berlin race in 2019.

It’s the longest period Bekele, who has been battling a persistent Achilles tendon injury in the past, has gone without running competitively.

Bekele is planning a huge comeback: two marathons in 42 days!

He is scheduled to run the New York City Marathon on November 7.

“For a whole year, I couldn’t race and it’s been really difficult for athletes,” Bekele told Sports Illustrated.

“I want to take this chance and see what is possible.”

It could be an arduous double, but a doable one for the man who won 17 world titles over cross-country, track, and road.

Bekele has the blessings of Adelo, who has coached several Ethiopian stars - including Lelisa Desisa winner of four World Marathon Majors, and triple Olympic champion Tirunesh Dibaba.

“Scientifically it’s not advisable to run two marathons in two months but considering Kenenisa is naturally gifted with power and hard work coupled with his current good form and health, he is very ok and will run both Berlin and New York.

“Since he has had two years of good rest, he doesn’t have any pressure at all. He believes in his ability to run the two marathons in 42 days.”

Who else will be competing?

Besides Bekele, there are a handful of Ethiopians who could upset the form books.

Guye Adola, second behind Eliud Kipchoge in 2017, is the other man to watch.

There is also youngster Olika Adugna, who is only 22. He won the Dubai race in his first marathon attempt in 2020.

Also watch out for the 2021 Lake Biwa Marathon winner, Japan’s Hidekazu Hijikata.

On the women’s entry list, Ethiopian Hiwot Gebrekidan will start as the clear favourite as she boasts the fastest time of the field (2:19:25) from the 2021 Milan Marathon.

2015 Copenhagen and Lisbon marathon champion Purity Rionoripo of Kenya is the other star starter.

The 'World record course'

The Berlin Marathon is the fastest marathon course in the world.

Eight men’s world record and three in women have been set in the German city.

Here is a look at the seven of the eight records that have been set on the course since the first race in 1974.

Brazil’s Ronaldo da Costa was the first world record holder from the Berlin course with his time of 2:06:05 in 1998.

Men’s world record progression of marathon

2:01:39 Eliud Kipchoge KEN Berlin 16 SEP 2018

2:02:57 Dennis Kimetto KEN Berlin 28 SEP 2014

2:03:23 Wilson Kipsang KEN Berlin 29 SEP 2013

2:03:38 Patrick Makau KEN Berlin 25 SEP 2011

2:03:59 Haile Gebrselassie ETH Berlin 28 SEP 2008

2:04:26 Haile Gebrselassie ETH Berlin 30 SEP 2007

2:04:55 Paul Tergat KEN Berlin 28 SEP 2003

 

 

He is a gifted runner

Has a chance but he has been inconsistent and no strong runners to push

So need weather, and all stars to be aligned

Run 2 marathon in 42 days is not so good for even a young man

Wish him success

 

 

 

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Newbie26

Newbie26

Hypersonic
12 hours ago, Karoon said:

Fyi, the current marathon WR of 2h 2min ~ 6m 58s for each 2.4km.

Faster than that,

official WR 2hr 1min 38s

Unofficial 1hr 59min 40s

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Ender

Ender

Hypersonic
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(edited)

https://www.letsrun.com/news/2021/09/can-kenenisa-bekele-break-the-marathon-world-record-in-berlin-hes-in-perfect-shape-now-i-think-so-says-his-coach/

Can Kenenisa Bekele Break the Marathon World Record In Berlin? “He’s In Perfect Shape Now….I Think So,” Says His Coach

By Jonathan Gault
September 23, 2021

Kenenisa Bekele is running the Berlin Marathon on Sunday.

Bekele is 39 years old. He hasn’t run a marathon in two years. He hasn’t run any race, period, in 18 months. He has racked up so many DNF’s and DNS’s over the last seven years that it is hard to keep track.

He is also the greatest distance runner of all time. And Berlin is the site of some of his greatest triumphs. He won the 5k/10k double there at the 2009 Worlds. In 2016, snubbed by the Ethiopian Olympic selectors, he showed up to the Berlin Marathon and won in 2:03:03, missing the world record by six seconds. Three years later, when many believed his career was over, he came even closer, his 2:01:41 winning time just two seconds off Eliud Kipchoge‘s world record.

We watch sports because they’re unpredictable, and because they present an opportunity to witness greatness. And that’s why I will wake up at 4 a.m. on Sunday to watch Bekele live in Berlin (Editor’s note: The race starts at 3:15 am ET but Jonathan is ok with missing the first 45 minutes). His longtime agent Jos Hermens sums it up best.

“It’s Kenenisa Bekele,” Hermens says. “So we never know.”

image.png.b596ac577f6f433b10714f1634182036.pngEmbed from Getty Images

Two years ago, Bekele spent two months of his Berlin buildup in Nijmegen, the headquarters of Hermens’ Global Sports Communication agency in the Netherlands, where he received dietary guidance to lose weight and hands-on treatment from ace physiotherapist Peter Eemers. Bekele did the same thing in 2021, though his stay in the Netherlands was slightly shorter (roughly five to six weeks) before returning to Addis Ababa for the final two months of his Berlin buildup.

Hermens says that everything has gone “okay,” though the buildup was a little shorter than ideal. That is one of the reasons why Bekele did not run any sort of tuneup race this year.

“We needed all the time to get him fit for Berlin,” Hermens says. “We had no time to do a half marathon. How much do you taper? How much do you train afterwards? The traveling. There weren’t [many races] going on anyway.”

Kipchoge’s 2:01:39 world record is the obvious goal that has motivated Bekele since his move to the marathon in 2014. But Hermens did not want to make any outlandish predictions. He is taking a cautious approach to Berlin, as it has been a difficult last 12 months for Bekele. He was forced to withdraw from last year’s London Marathon at the last minute due to a calf injury sustained in his final hard session, and then got COVID during the summer of 2021. Hermens just wants to make sure his client gets the opportunity to do what he loves to do on Sunday: race.

“He’s fit, he’s ready to run fast,” Hermens says. “How fast, we have to see on Sunday — conditions, competition, everything. Personally, I’m happy he’s there and he’s fit and healthy at the starting line. At the moment, he’s disciplined and he’s very anxious to still show something the next coming years, knowing that he’s getting older. I like his attitude at the moment, it’s good.”

***

Hermens may be downplaying expectations, but in Ethiopia, the hype is building. On Thursday, Ethiopian photographer Aman Ahmed quoted Bekele’s coach Haji Adilo as saying that Bekele would break the world record in Berlin. Then Ethiopian running expert Michael Crawley, author of the excellent Out of Thin Air, reported similarly optimistic sentiments.

So I reached out to Adilo myself earlier today, and he confirmed that Bekele is very fit.

“He’s in perfect shape now,” Adilo says. “His progress is very good.”

How does his shape compare to before Berlin in 2019?

“It’s the same as 2019,” Adilo says. “Little bit…”

bmw-berlin-marathon-2019-winner-kenenisa

Bekele barely missed the WR in his last trip to Berlin (SCC EVENTS/Norbert Wilhelmi)

He pauses. Here it is. I expect Adilo to say “little bit worse” or that some last-minute injury or other issue has popped up.

“It’s same,” he continues. “Little bit…better now, I think.”

Just a reminder: 2019 Bekele ran 2:01:41 in Berlin.

Adilo goes on to say that Bekele’s health is “very good,” that his concentration is better than it was ahead of Berlin two years ago. He knows how close he was to the world record and doesn’t want to leave anything to chance this time around. The goal, Adilo tells me, is the world record.

Do you think that’s possible?

“Ahhhhhhh,” Adilo says, drawing out the suspense as long as possible. “Ah ah ah ah ah ah. I think so.”

***

So there you have it, two perspectives on Bekele ahead of Sunday’s race. The stats say that fast Bekele marathons are a rare occurrence these days. Since the start of 2017, Bekele has signed up for eight of them, scratched from two of them, dropped out of three of them, and finished three of them. Of those three finishes, one was unimpressive (2:08:53 for 6th at 2018 London), one was good (2:05:57 for 2nd at 2017 London), and one was otherworldly (2:01:41 win at 2019 Berlin). There are plenty of reasons to doubt him.

Yet there are reasons to believe, too. If what Adilo says about Bekele is true. If Bekele can summon another Lazarus-like effort in Berlin, as he did in 2016 and again in 2019. And if the weather — with a high of 75, it will be on the warmer side in Berlin — can cooperate on Sunday.

You can pick your side, pessimist or optimist, but the truth is, no one knows how Sunday is going to go. Not even Bekele. That is why we watch.

“You don’t know how you’re going to feel after 30k,” Hermens says. “That’s the beauty of racing, especially marathon running.”

What do you think of Bekele’s chances in Berlin? Tell us on our world-famous fan forum / messageboard: MB: Set your alarm clocks now. Bekele’s coach: “He’s in perfect shape now….I think [he can break the WR].”

 

Edited by Ender
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Ender

Ender

Hypersonic
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15 hours ago, Karoon said:

Fyi, the current marathon WR of 2h 2min ~ 6m 58s for each 2.4km.

6:58 is the 2.4 timing of the fastest gurkhas in Singapore.

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Sosaria

Sosaria

Twincharged
On 9/25/2021 at 9:51 AM, Karoon said:

Fyi, the current marathon WR of 2h 2min ~ 6m 58s for each 2.4km.

Beat the 2.4 time limit of 7 minutes many times over. That's many thousands of bottles of pocari sweat [laugh]

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