Eliud Kipchoge, the undisputed world's best marathon runner, is aiming for an unprecedented fourth London title on Sunday but will have to beat off the challenge of British home favorite Mo Farah.
Farah, who has gone from a triumphant track career to road running, is hungry for victory after winning the Chicago marathon in October. Kipchoge is back in marathon action for the first time since setting his remarkable world record of 2 hours 01.39 seconds in Berlin in September, when he took more than a 1 minute off the old mark, and the 34-year-old Olympic champion from Kenya said: "I like London, I'm fit and ready to compete."
Kipchoge has won 11 of the 12 marathons he has entered including the London races over 42.195 kilometers last year and in 2015 and 2016, but the former 5,000 meter racer, who won gold over the distance at the 2003 world championships, says no one is unbeatable. "Anybody can be beaten. Mo can beat me, others can beat me, but the best thing is that if you can accept the results, that's the only way to enjoy the sport." Farah, who was knighted in 2017 for services to athletics after an illustrious track career in which he won four Olympic golds over 5,000 meters and 10,000 meters, has made a successful transition to road running. He finished third in London last year and won in Chicago in a European best of 2:05:11. "I'm learning as I go along," he said.
"The marathon is completely different to track, and racing against Eliud in London last year felt like having to learn the hard way, but I believe I did learn a lot."
