Enschede, Netherlands
Eliud Kipchoge, the reigning Olympic champion and world record holder, won the Enschede Marathon on Sunday in preparation for the Tokyo Games. “It is mission accomplished,” the 36-year-old Kenyan said.
“It was so good a marathon happened a few months before the Olympics to test our fitness.”
Kipchoge completed the course, over eight laps at Twente airport, in 2 hours 4 minutes and 30 seconds.
He was well outside his official world record of 2:01.39 set in Berlin in 2018 but comfortably outpaced his competition.
Jonathan Korir, another Kenyan, stayed with his training partner until 33km when Kipchoge accelerated.
Korir dropped away to finish more than two minutes back in 2:06.40, a personal best. Goitom Kifle of Eritrea trimmed two seconds from his best time to take third in 2:08.07.
In the women’s race, German Katharina Steinruck sliced almost a minute-and-a-half from her personal best as she won in 2:25:59. Steinruck dropped her rivals in the second half of the race.
Portuguese veteran Sara Moreira took second in 2:26:42 with Germany’s Rabea Schoneborn improving her personal best by more than a minute-and-a-half to finish third in 2:27:03.—APP
