MARATHON WORLD RECORD
Olympic champion Kenenisa Bekele in a hurry for London Marathon glory
The Ethiopian still feels he can complete a remarkable hat-trick by claiming the marathon mark
London — Triple Olympic track champion Kenenisa Bekele is somewhat surprised that his sepia-tinged 5,000m and 10,000m world records are still standing but, at 34, he still feels he can complete a remarkable hat-trick by claiming the marathon mark. Ethiopian Bekele, widely regarded as the greatest distance runner of all time, set 5,000m and 10,000m world records in 2004, improving the longer distance a year later, and nobody has got remotely close to either since. After finding his feet in the marathon, he posted the second-fastest time ever — 2hr 3min 3sec — when winning Berlin in September 2016, six seconds outside Dennis Kimetto’s world record of 2:02:57, set on the same course in 2014. On Sunday, finally running free of the succession of back, hip and calf injuries that have dogged the last five years of his career, he hopes to win the London Marathon and eclipse Kimetto’s world record. "Times are very important," Bekele said in London on Thursday. "On the track, I don’t see anyo...
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