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It was a novelty when the top three finishers in the London Marathon last weekend, all broke the previous world record set of 2:00:35 in 2023 by Kelvin Kiptum.
For Kiptum, who passed away in 2024, holding the two fastest times in a marathon, had his records surpassed by fellow Kenyan Sabastian Sawe, 30, who alongside Ethiopian Yomif Kejelcha, 28, were the first to run a sub two-hour marathon in 1:59:30 and 1:59:41 respectively.
However, for Uganda’s Jacob Kiplimo, 25, he was 58 seconds slower than Sawe, although his finishing time, too, 2:00:28, was seven seconds better than the previous world record.
While Kiplimo may have finished third in the London Marathon, his performance projects good things to come. Timothy Masaba of an athletes management firm, Curre said that last weekend’s London Marathon showed how the level of runners is growing by the day.
Masaba noted that running marathons is now becoming more sophisticated because of what is involved in preparing for one.
“The times set by these athletes are almost super-human. But we have all seen the kind of improvements that Kiplimo has been making over the years on the road; from the cross-country, the 10km races, to the half-marathons, and now the marathons. He is getting better by the day,” Masaba said.
Due to that, and also considering how youthful Kiplimo still is, for him to break the new world records is not out of possibility. Kiplimo has been running on the road for a long time now, since he was a teenager.
Therefore, he has grasped what it requires to manoeuvre there. In addition, marathon runners get better with age, which means that Kiplimo has time on his side. At the moment, Kiplimo is expected to take a break of at least a month before he takes on another marathon this year.
But also seeing that his counterpart, Joshua Cheptegei, 29, who ran his fourth marathon last weekend, also managed to finish twelfth in 2:06:39, he, too, is showing good growth there according to Masaba, and people should just keep watching the space.
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, https://observer.ug/sports/making-sense-of-jacob-kiplimos-third-fastest-time-in-the-marathon/
