In 2019, Kenenisa Bekele came within two seconds of breaking Eliud Kipchoge’s world record. At 39, the Ethiopian champion has come to New York to prove he can still win anywhere.
Kenenisa Bekele, arguably the greatest distance runner ever, is not really supposed to be here. In New York. Running another marathon, just six weeks after the last one. Believing he is on the cusp of proving to the world that he is the fastest marathoner alive. But Thursday afternoon, at 39-years-old, Bekele was a short walk across Central Park from the finish line of the New York City Marathon, which he plans on winning sometime a little before noon on Sunday morning. “I will be in a very good position,” Bekele said of his chances. Indeed. He is just about the fastest marathoner alive, and so much faster than everyone else in the race, even if this marathon does not necessarily favor the fleetest in the field. A little more than two years ago, Bekele completed the Berlin Marathon in 2 hours 1 minute 39 seconds, just two seconds off Eliud Kipchoge ’s world record, set in Berlin the previous year. He has two major marathon championships, three Olympic gold medals and five world championships at 10,000 and 5,000 meters. In September, he ran the Berlin Marathon and finished third, in 2:06:47, just 62 seconds behind the winner. He blamed his performance on a bad night of sleep and limited training time because of a case of Covid-19. Regardless, calling it a season would have been perfectly appropriate. Instead, he kept with his plan to also run New York, a race he has never done before, just six weeks after Berlin. He refuses to accept the idea that runners approaching their 40th birthday are not supposed to even think about winning one of the six world marathon majors. He said he believes he can find those two seconds he left on the course in Berlin in 2019 and break Kipchoge’s world record.
