Kipchoge's 11 First Place finishes out of 12 Marathons is impressive.
Kipchoge Having Five Sub 2:04 Finishes in an OFFICIAL marathon is impressive.
I was not really into the nike breaking 2 project & was not in awe when he ran 2:00:25. Same is true with the INEOS 1:59 project. While the event displayed his great speed, endurance & running economy, It was done in a controlled environment with aided tactics not allowed in an official marathon.
I was in awe & really impressed when he broke the marathon record (2:01:39) in the Berlin Marathon. It was done in an OFFICIAL Marathon without the aided tactics to enhance performance used in nike breaking 2 & INEOS 1:59.
From the beginning of the INEOS challenge, they already stated that the attempt will NOT be eligible for World Record because of the race tactics that they are going to employ such as:
1. Interchanging pacers that doubles as wind breakers that switches every 4 Kilometers
2. Handing over hydration at any point in the race
Also, it's not record eligible since the 26.2 Miles (42.195 Km) run only consists of only one competitor (kipchoge) and the course itself is NOT a marathon course and the distance is not officially measured as 42.195 Km (26.2 Miles) . They only made claims that the total area that will be covered is 42.195 Km (26.2 Miles)
Come to think of it, since they already said that INEOS 1:59 is NOT an official attempt:
1. No Official body or any party will be interested to actually go and measure the distance of the course & the claimed number of rotations that will be done during kipchoge's run on the course since it's NOT going to be record eligible anyway.
2. Telecasts / Live streams of international & world marathon majors usually show onscreen the elapsed time & distance covered in realtime so we have a detailed idea about the race. During the INEOS's live stream, only a timer was shown and they were NOT even able to show a realtime Per Kilometer / 5K / 10K / half-marathon split & was only telling estimates. The 5K Splits was only released long after the event.
Some people have noticed the way the commentators are talking before halfway of the run. It looks like INEOS has already guaranteed 200% that he is going to finish Sub2. The Question is, did they really cover 26.2 Miles during the run? (I did NOT watch the live telecast because of lack of interest)
The thing that INEOS did was to hype-up a staged, environmentally controlled 26.2 (42.195) Mile Run, claim it to be historically important as the moon-landing, roger bannisters sub 4 minute mile & even say that it is equivalent to Usain Bolt's 2009 World championship world record of 9.58.
They should be comparing this event to Justin Gatlin's Industrial fan Wind-Assisted 9.45 second sprint because of illegal tactics employed instead of Usain Bolt's 9.58 World championship World record. What's disturbing is that, there is clearly an intent by INEOS and all the parties involved to deceive people especially those NOT into athletics that this is a major landmark in human history & athletics & the run itself is record eligible.
Even using the tagline (The Final Barrier In Athletics) is absurd. There are a lot of barriers in athletics that can still be achieved, not only 1:59.
I am an admirer of the Eliud Kipchoge. He is one of the all-time greats in athletics but this INEOS, claimed-history & for humanity claims thing is something I am not really into.
