Barry McCahcner wrote:
"Sure, and the AP author likely spent less than 30 seconds scanning Jakob's Wikipedia article to find something to write. That's all fine, but after scanning the Wikipedia intro paragraph, the author could have written:
"1500 and 5000m European champion" or:
"5000m European record holder" or, if the author also scanned the sidebar:
"1500m and 5000m European record holder"
Except that people like you and me already know that. The article was written for people that don't know - or care about - European records, but maybe - probably not, but maybe - have heard of the sub 2 marathon.
"Pacemaker for Eliud Kipchoge’s sub-2 hour marathon" raises a bunch of questions for non-followers of distance running, even if they had heard of the sub-2 thing:
-What's a pacemaker?
-Who is Eliud Kipchoge?
-How special is a sub-2 marathon?
-Why is the pacemaker also special?
On the other hand, "European record holder" or "European champion" are easy to appreciate, even for someone who didn't know that such titles existed. And again, this stuff is plainly written in the intro to Jakob's wikipedia article. The pacer thing is there too, which is how the author learned of it, presumably.