Bekele /Kipchoge London clash, early prediction thread

Geremew with the surprise victory. You heard it here first.

Bekele drops out at around mile 20. Kipchoge wins in 2:03 low but it's super close.

Coming from the biggest Bekele fan, I'm still going with Kipchoge. He's Mr. Perfect in this event, and especially on this course.

Plus, we know nothing about Bekele for most of the year. Has he been training? Kipchoge is probably deep in his 40km long run as we speak.

Of those two, whoever receives the best springs from Nike should take the title.

Honestly it's a slap in the face to Kipchoge to have everyone hyping up Bekele to beat him. Kipchoge has lined up against Bekele in about 4-5 major marathons and beat him EVERY TIME. Bekele usually DNFs against Kipchoge because he is utterly destroyed and no match at all for the marathon GOAT Kipchoge. He is a poor loser/sore loser. I would not expect Kopchoge to DNF is he was beat but I definitely would expect bekele to DNF after he realized he was not the fastest on the day. Here's what's going to happen because it has before: Kipchoge W and Bekele D N F.

Walmsley 2:01:33

Kipchoge is only in danger if he allows it to come down to the last mile or two. He knows this and will grind everyone down with a sustained push from several miles out.

It is hard to pick between them. With Bekele’s racing history it is likely that he will fall back at some point in the second half of the race. He’s been able to come back against the likes of Legese and Kipsang. However, I feel like once he does that, Kipchoge will not allow him to catch back up. But the key thing here is that Bekele could be getting in his best block of training for a marathon yet. That, coupled with the confidence he has gained from the Berlin victory might give him the fitness to stay along Kipchoge and not fall back. If this happens, he could be the one surging and dropping Kipchoge in the latter stages of the race. In saying all this, Geremew cannot be counted out either. He has finished second in his last 3 marathons and must be incredibly driven to finally win a major. He can definitely hang with Kipchoge and Bekele for a while. I just find it unlikely that he will have enough left towards the end of the race to match their surges. I predict that both Kipchoge and Bekele will run faster than the current WR, but it is really hard to say at this point who will come out on top. Kipchoge would be the safe bet, but if Bekele’s most recent marathon taught us anything, we should never count him out.

Geremew and 2 other random Ethiopians hang with them till mile 23, but fade to 2:03s as the 2 GOATs duke it out

Bekele 2:01:03 and retires post race

Kipchoge 2:01:11 but comes back next year to run 2:00:xx.

+1

Hopefully Bekele wins but honestly his performance is not as consistent as what Kipchoge has. Eliud is like a swiss clock and therefore will probably win but if Bekele is going to have a "pöljäpäivä" he might set a new WR.

Bekele and Kipchoge duking it out at mile 25, throwing all they can at each other. One surge after another, but neither seems to be able to open a gap of more than a couple feet.

The commentators barely have any voice left.

“... they’ve covered this last mile in 4:28! The pace is mad! But... who is that?!! It’s dietbacon! He’s coming up on them! And he zooms past then! It’s dietbacon! He’s flying by St James Park, he can see the palace! He waves at the queen! He’s turning into the Mall, it’s dietbacon, dietbacon FTW!!!”