NAIROBI: Two-time Olympic marathon champion Eliud Kipchoge will run the Sydney Marathon in the month of August, he said on Thursday.

The 40-year-old Kenyan athlete, who won back-to-back Olympic titles in 2016 (Rio de Janeiro) and 2020 (Tokyo), became in 2019 the first man to run a marathon in under two hours with a time of one hour, fifty-nine minutes and 40 seconds in the city of Vienna. That did not count as an official record, however, as standard competition rules were not in place.

“I’m so excited,” Kipchoge said in a statement.

“This is not only my first time running the TCS Sydney Marathon, but also my first time running in Oceania. Running in Australia is a great opportunity for me.”

He has a record of 16 wins in 21 officially ratified marathon events, including 10 consecutive victories from 2014 to 2019.

Kipchoge, who has run the second fastest official marathon ever with a time of two hours,

one minute and nine seconds, will take part in next month’s London Marathon before travelling to the Australian city of Sydney.

Published in Dawn, March 15th, 2025