Eliud Kipchoge makes history by running sub two-hour marathon

[nitpicker]

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/oct/12/eliud-kipchoge-makes-history-sub-two-hour-marathon

Eliud Kipchoge makes history by running sub two-hour marathon

Guardian sport

Sat 12 Oct 2019 09.15 BST Last modified on Sat 12 Oct 2019 09.34 BST

Eliud Kipchoge made history in Vienna by running the first-ever sub two-hour marathon in a time of 1hr 59min 40sec. Cheered on by thousands of fans, the Kenyan world record holder and Olympic champion completed four laps of a 9.4km circuit around the Prater, a park in the centre of the Austrian capital.

Kipchoge achieved the feat with a team of 41 in-and-out pacemakers, seven at a time, whose positions were guided by lasers projected on the road from a support car in front. These assisted conditions, and the fact the run was not part of an open event, mean his achievement will not count as an official world record.

He remained on target throughout the effort, running each kilometre consistently in around 2’50”. Five pacemakers ran shoulder-to-shoulder in front of Kipchoge, with one man on either side.

Branded the ‘Ineos 1:59 Challenge’, the attempt was initially scheduled to take place in Battersea Park in London. The 34-year-old previously attempted the feat at Monza in Italy in 2017, falling short by 26 seconds.
(snip)

[underpants]

1. Amazing even with pacemakers and lasers. I was wondering about the course.

That was controversial. So, too, the green lasers projected on to the road as a further safeguard against losing ground. This is not sport as we knew it. The hills couldn’t be alive because the hills didn’t exist; Kipchoge’s route was entirely flat and 90% straight.