Oh baby, it's on!! Bekele v Kipchoge and Farah at 2018 London Marathon

Expect great things

More like Kipchoge vs the clock.

Race for 2nd and race for midpack. Farah won’t contend in this one. He’ll be up there, but not winning.

I thought this already was the expectation. Farah was confirmed, Kipchoge was confirmed, Bekele wasn't 100% confirmed but it was expected that he would go. I'm not surprised. I'm sure defending champ D. Wanjiru will be back. All they need is Kipsang, Kam, and the Great White Hope Sondre Moen to round it out for the best field of all time. And the Ruppster, of course, but he has other concerns in the springtime.

vivalarepublica wrote:

I thought this already was the expectation. Farah was confirmed, Kipchoge was confirmed, Bekele wasn't 100% confirmed but it was expected that he would go. I'm not surprised. I'm sure defending champ D. Wanjiru will be back. All they need is Kipsang, Kam, and the Great White Hope Sondre Moen to round it out for the best field of all time. And the Ruppster, of course, but he has other concerns in the springtime.

Oh, and sub-2:04 guy and fastest marathon debut Guye Adola.

What I want: WR from Bekele

What we'll get: Bekele dropping out at 32km after being on WR pace.

WRecord wrote:

More like Kipchoge vs the clock.

Race for 2nd and race for midpack. Farah won’t contend in this one. He’ll be up there, but not winning.

glad you have the answers. did you share your wisdom with Mo yet?

Meh, Boston lineup is more interesting

A lot of pressure on Farah to produce a strong time in London. If he fails to (say, another meh 2:08-ish kind of performance), does that spell disaster for his marathoning career, or is it still premature to arrive at that judgment? And if it does spell disaster, what does he do next? Half Marathon and shorter road events? That seems a bit underwhelming...

if u are bekele n its not champ races u can pick n choose which races u wanna enter. its not that he needs an invitation. if he says he is coming he is comin.

the dude is a living legend. now, will we see kipsinging, kamwaror, karoake n kimetto too?

The folowing press release was supposed to be embargoed until tomorrow but since Xinhua violated the embargo we are going to as well.

Yep, about the morals (and spelling) I expect from so-called running media.

its premature. london will be about placing. how close can he get to the real studs?? or will he be a schoolboy among real men again? time will tell o lord.

i guess mo will go to some obscure place again about a month prior to the race. doin fishy stuff again. maybe ethiopia or maybe iraq or afghanistan this time....

Meh.. wrote:

Meh, Boston lineup is more interesting

Haha yup, two of the greatest runners in history and Mo vs a 2.09 American and a 2nd tier African's who are basically the best of the rest outside of the big races (Berlin/London) to make Rupp's run look legit as they are WC medalists.

It's a bit like Tennis Olympic Champion bein better than the Grand Slam Winners.

MuricaFYeah! wrote:

Meh.. wrote:

Meh, Boston lineup is more interesting

Haha yup, two of the greatest runners in history and Mo vs a 2.09 American and a 2nd tier African's who are basically the best of the rest outside of the big races (Berlin/London) to make Rupp's run look legit as they are WC medalists.

It's a bit like Tennis Olympic Champion bein better than the Grand Slam Winners.

Yeah, London. Lol. Boston was always THE marathon! London is a joke. All the top guys have always run Boston. It's just in the last few years Kipchoge and Bekele have decided to forego it only because they feel they need to own a WR. can't do that in Boston. I won't respect Bekele or Kipchoge as much until they win a Boston. That's that.

vivalarepublica wrote:

vivalarepublica wrote:

I thought this already was the expectation. Farah was confirmed, Kipchoge was confirmed, Bekele wasn't 100% confirmed but it was expected that he would go. I'm not surprised. I'm sure defending champ D. Wanjiru will be back. All they need is Kipsang, Kam, and the Great White Hope Sondre Moen to round it out for the best field of all time. And the Ruppster, of course, but he has other concerns in the springtime.

Oh, and sub-2:04 guy and fastest marathon debut Guye Adola.

He just got handled in Houston. I'd suspect he's more like 31-32 as well...not fresh legs. I think we've seen his best already, and he'll only go down from here. 100% agree on Kip, Kam, and Moen though!

Meh.. wrote:

MuricaFYeah! wrote:

Haha yup, two of the greatest runners in history and Mo vs a 2.09 American and a 2nd tier African's who are basically the best of the rest outside of the big races (Berlin/London) to make Rupp's run look legit as they are WC medalists.

It's a bit like Tennis Olympic Champion bein better than the Grand Slam Winners.

Yeah, London. Lol. Boston was always THE marathon! London is a joke. All the top guys have always run Boston. It's just in the last few years Kipchoge and Bekele have decided to forego it only because they feel they need to own a WR. can't do that in Boston. I won't respect Bekele or Kipchoge as much until they win a Boston. That's that.

Can’t even tell if you’re serious. Boston hasn’t been a big deal in a long time. Nobody goes to London to “own a WR”, either. I don’t think there’s been a men’s WR there since Khannouchi. But London is where the action, prestige, and cash are. Boston gets consistently mediocre fields these days.

Not much of a different look from the Berlin WR chase in Sept... then Bekele quit, and Kipsang too..

Like someone else said, it’s Kipchoge vs the clock.

Chase pack wrote:

Not much of a different look from the Berlin WR chase in Sept... then Bekele quit, and Kipsang too..

Like someone else said, it’s Kipchoge vs the clock.

Kipchoge vs the clock for sure, no suspense here. It will actually be interesting to see what Mo can do, but there's really more intrigue to Boston as opposed to this paced time trial.....

Rupp has no desire to be anything more than a second tier elite athlete. How can anyone who wants to be great and race against the greatest just pass in these opportunities time and time again.