How online threats after a rival’s death almost broke marathon king Eliud Kipchoge

Eliud Kipchoge, whom he has been trained for twenty years in the same Spartan camp in rural Kenya every morning, rises at 5.45 o’clock. A little after 6 am, Marathon Running’s baptism is hit by many of the best athletes in the world and the red earth roads surrounded by educational partners and sheep and cattle.

“I go out and train twice a day, trying to cover 25 to 30 kilometers every day, K said Kipchoge. “I work for seven days a week. I really sacrifice to be in the form.”

Kipchoge lives for 30 minutes from the Kaptagat training camp, which is at high altitude in Southwest Kenya with his wife and three children. However, in four months before a marathon, Kipchoge will move to Temel Accommodation and devote his life to education.

It was a successful formula. Kipchoge is considered to be a marathon goat that manages the famous 42.195km under two hours after winning the Olympic Gold Medals in a row, breaking the world record and becoming an unofficial man.

Kipchoge is in the camp shortly before his first trip to Australia. The legend was signed for Sydney Marathon on August 31 as part of a star field for the seventh and new-first year of Abbott World Marathon Majors for Sydney’s first year.

Sydney rose last year to participate in London, Chicago, Berlin, Tokyo, New York and Boston Marathons as distinguished races of the world, and considering that he won 11 major in four of these cities, you will be a brave person to download another Kipchoge victory.

However, there is no guarantee. Now 40 years old, Kipchoge’s atmosphere of invincibility faded. A win in Sydney would be the first since 2023, and Kipchoge’s best ending at the beginning of the last three was sixth.

There are good reasons, including the new generation of competitors, which he inspired and encouraged, including injury and still unreformed father’s time.

And in an interview with this Masthead, Kipchoge opened a abusive online campaign that accused him of incorrectly incorporating it, considering how deeply he was affected by Kenya Marathoner Kelvin Kiptum’s death last year and broke the world record.

However, none of them can prevent Kipchoge from adjusting 5.45 am alarm.

“I want to inspire the next generation and inspire people on the planet. “That’s why I’m still running. So I still wake up every morning, I’m doing all kinds of training with pain and everything to preach the gospel.”

The goat of the game

In a world where goat status will be given a passive sandwiches, Kipchoge is one of the rare people who are not the largest of all time.

After winning the Olympic bronze and silver at 5000 meters in 2004 and 2008, Kenya moved to marathons and became unrivaled. Between 2014-2019, he won 10 races in a row, including the first Olympic gold in Rio. He went back to Tokyo in a row and at the end of 2022, he had won 16 of the 19 official marathons he entered.

Kipchoge kept the world record between 2018 and 2023 – 2:01:09 time second – and in 2019 Kipchoge, even 1:59:40 for a marathon, ran at a special event that was not counted as a record.

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In his speech, there are legends, including Emil Zatopek, who won the Olympic Gold in his first marathon and Grete Waitz, the pioneer of Norwegian women who won 12 great races. And, of course, in 1960, the Ethiopian Abebe Bikila, who ran with bare feet during a world record period and won the Olympic Gold and then regained it in 1964 just a few weeks after an appendctomy. However, none of them can match Kipchoge’s constant domination.

“The only comparison would be Usain Bolt,” he says, Sydney Marathon Race Director Wayne Lar, after guaranteeing Kipchoge to run as a world major in Sydney’s first year.

On Sunday, August 31, more than 35,000 people will run and most of the best of the world, including the Paris Women’s Gold Medal Sifan Hassan and Ethiopian male star Birhanu Legese.

There are 16 men running under 2:06:00 in the men’s field.

In terms of form, Kipchoge will stop its work to cross the line in Sydney Opera House Forecourt. In 2024, he won 10th in the Tokyo Marathon and did not finish the Olympics due to back complaints. In April this year, he came sixth in London at 2:05.25.

Now in his 40s, Kipchoge says he is pleased with his new life as a traveling preacher, and he is also proud to have “open the door ıyla to make his young rivals chased what was once thought to be impossible.

However, in a not surprising way, the steel rival did not disappear.

Orum I believe I’m still ready to go and run 2:02:00, 2:03:00, ”he says.

“I still can train with the younger generation and I can finish the training together. This is my happiness. Maybe I will inspire them in the future generations. But I’m the happiest man because I have opened their minds to show them, hey, if you do well, you will work on that core. This athlete is thinking of making history now.”

In 2023, Ktirtum wrote history in Chicago when he dropped Kipchoge’s world record for a surprising time.

Under the race conditions, the magic was close to the two -hour magic sign. Does Kipchoge think this will be throughout his life?

“Absolutely, yes,” he says. Orum I believe and believe that someone will run under two hours. The magic is yourself to accept and do it.

“Now I see that many young people admit that we need to force ourselves. We need to see how our minds and bodies can force us.”

The death of Ktirtum

24 -year -old – and just five months after the world record break – Kiptum and coach Gervais Hakizimana died in a traffic accident near Kapagat. Police said Ktirtum had lost control of his car late at night and hit a tree.

In Kenya, a whispering campaign emerged, wrongly claimed that Kipchoge was involved. As a result, the champion lost his friends and training partners and was subjected to online abuse and threats.

“People were shocked [on] Social media platforms, ‘Eliud is involved in the death of this child,’ he says. Last year BBC Sport Africa.

“This was my worst news in my life. I got a lot of bad things; [training] The camp will burn my investments in the city, they will burn my house, they will burn my family. “

The stretching has ultimately contributed to Kipchoge’s most difficult year, including not being able to finish it because he chased a unique third Olympic gold.

“[It] It was really a hard year in my career; It was a difficult time for me and my family ..

“My people around me, the most difficult time so far. And you know, we only give a positive sport, but people may think that what you do is exactly negative.

“I brought a lot of impact on myself, my family. And these people drove me and sent down me. But in the end, I know myself, I know what I do.

Did he ever think about getting away?

“My love of running is still there, so I ask myself, ‘Why am I leaving? Why am I running? Because someone was actually saying a lot?’ I ask. “So let me still run and let me do what I do. I believe in the values I stand. I still focus on them.”

Fast cars and Sydney Run Clubs

EMURS never humble, kipchoge asks to be the biggest. If so, who will gradually as goats?

“I think Haile Gebrsessie goat,” he answers. Orum I believe that Haile has opened too much doors for young people.

“Apart from long -distance running, I believe that the Formula 1 driver Lewis Hamilton is a goat.[km/h] All year, year, year and values. “

Kipchoge was 15 years old during the Sydney Olympics, when Gebrsessie won the second gold at 10,000 meters, but when he stood to cheer up his hero Noah Ngeny, while defeating legendary horny al -Guerrouj at 1500 meters.

He plans to look at the Sydney course in a car before the race next week, but if you’ve wondered if you can get a foot with Kipchoge, take a look: a look: he also wants to go to Bondi for a running club.

“If you see the pictures, if you see everything on the Internet until Sydney, it is beautiful, or he says. “Bridge, beauty, how the roads are, I really look forward to.

“I believe that Sydney will be the most beautiful course in this world.”