This showdown is set to light up the streets of London, as both men will
look to rekindle a well-known rivalry.
There is no doubt that it will be an exciting tussle with fast times, but
the only uncertain thing, is who will be victorious at the end of this grueling
42 kilometers. This is why today we will be taking a look at all the relevant
factors to decide who is more likely to come out on top.
Eliud and Bekele have met before in competition from the track to the
marathon , and over their past meetings both men has had significant wins
against each other. Kipchoge first struck Bekele in 2003 when he defeated him
in the 5000m at the world championships, at just the age of 18. However it took
just a year for Bekele to get his revenge in the same event, when he finished
ahead of kipchoge at the Athens Olympics.
Since then, it was all Bekele on the track, and kipchoge who had great
endurance and decent amount of speed failed to live up to expectations ever
since his wonderful run in 2003.
Fast forward to 2013, he found the Marathon, the event you might say he was
made for. Kipchoge in his first ever marathon won setting a new course record
in Hamburg. The time of 2 hours, 5 minutes and 30 seconds still remains the
course record for that Marathon.
Bekele in his first Marathon in Chicago, was 4th with a time of 2 hours, 5
minutes and 50 seconds. Interestingly, that race was won by Eliud Kipchoge.
Both men have come a long way since then, now having only 2 seconds between
them.
There are some interesting things to note from their best races. Bekele was
faster for majority of the race, however not maintaining the momentum for the
second 10km might have cost him the world record. In fact he came back strong
enough to be ahead of the world record pace up to 40 kilometers and if he had
not dropped the pace between the 15km and 20km we would have even higher stakes
in London.
The general belief is that Bekele is a much speedy runner given his
performances over the 5000 and 10,000 meters events. The fact however, when we
take a look at the performances over the mile Kipchoge has way better leg
speed. (Kenenise 4:01.57| Eliud kipchoge 3:50.40)
The strength of Bekele, lies in his ability run a fast last quarter of his
race, in his 5000m world record he went out quickly but unlike his opponents he
did not fade dramatically as they did. His tendency to gradually increase the
pace of the race has given much problem in the past. Mixed with a great amount
of leg speed Bekele is one of the last guys you would want to face in the last
stage of a race.
Having said that, Kipchoge is highly unlikely to be unphased by Bekele's
strong finish having run a world's best of 1:59:40. If Bekele wants to trouble
kipchoge he would need to go at a pace faster than Kipchoge is used to. In
other words he has to aim for a new world record to perturb the dominant
Kenyan. That may be likely, for someone like Bekele. we've seen where Bekele
has gone in races and just try to go out and maintain some unbelievable paces,
so Kipchoge has to be weary of that possibility.
So what can you expect?
You can expect a very fast race, with Eliud kipchoge and Kenenisa going at
it from the beginning. The race will be pretty close and meanwhile we might not
be able to pick a winner, because of the strong form of both these men, it is
quite likely we will witness a new World record.
No comments:
Post a Comment