Any Chance K. Bekele VS Eliud Kipchoge BEFORE the 2020 Olympic Marathon

anxious kenneth wrote:

Charlesvdw wrote:

Kipchoge will go for Olympic gold.

Bekele will go for the world record in Berlin.

You read it here first.

Kenny likely only cares about the WR. The danger is he'll do something stupid like after Berlin 2016 and attempt a WR in Dubai, fail (because Dubai is always to f*$&ing hot), try again in London, fail due to burnout/possible injury issues, then run in the Oly marathon and get beat soundly by Kipchoge, again due to burnout and/or injury.

I think he cares about the WR but if you recall 2016..he was desperate to make the Olympics. When he wasn’t named to the marathon team he ran the 10,000m trails in hoping to qualify..it would have to mean a lot for him to do that.

Also, I think this changed approach to training and actually training with a legit group of elite marathoners has hopefully added a couple years to his career

I hope Kipchoge never runs London again. He's done everything he can there.

Dude, you get it. I agree with you 100%

According to Jos Hermens in his last interview Bekele seems more inclined towards a WR attempt, and avoiding unfavourable racing conditions in Tokio (as Gebreselassie did skipping Beijing Olympics and going to Berlin); whereas Kipchoge is keen on retaining his Olympic gold medal.

And I assume that Kipchoge thinks also that getting his WR back from Bekele would resound much more than just improving on his own record. He can let Bekele or any other go for it in Valencia, Doha, London, Rotterdam, Frankfurt, you name it, and either they break it or not, come back from Tokio with his gold medal and run sub2 in an official course. That would really be big.

Although he always says he plans one race at a time (do not chase two rabbits at once) and probably he is now just celebrating (moderately), and then he will focus on the Olympics. And then see.

But he's not better! He ran slower than Kipchoge in better conditions (weather and he had someone to chase until ~35K). There is literally zero evidence from their respective marathon careers to suggest that...

BmoreRunner wrote:

LM wrote:

Because Bekele is probably better. If you asked me to bet on the winner of a potential H2H matchup between the two, this second, for a race in the future, I'd pick Kipchoge without hesitation.

If you altered those conditions and I got to pick the winner with an assurance that Bekele was healthy, with an uninterrupted 4 months block of training...I'd pick Bekele

But he's not better! He ran slower than Kipchoge in better conditions (weather and he had someone to chase until ~35K). There is literally zero evidence from their respective marathon careers to suggest that...

Last I recall Kipchoge wasn't injured for the first 4 months of 2018, the year he ran his WR. He wasn't in a rehabilitation centre and starting at 45km running per week just 4 months before his 2:01. He had more than 3 months proper marathon training. He didn't have an hamstring issues. Bekele is likely still recovering this month, but if he can replicate the rehabilitation he had in May this year, then he can start his full out training in November. There are literally 5 months between November and London, as opposed to 3 months(which he had for Berlin this year). Them extra 2 months of full thon training should be enough for him to get the WR in London next year. A guy like Bekele can do ALOT with 2 more months. I for one am literally dying to see how he does next year.