Eliud Kipchoge is no stranger to breaking barriers.
The Kenyan double Olympic champion has smashed the world record twice, and remains the only man to have run 26.2 miles in under two hours.
There was really no other headliner the TCS Sydney Marathon organizers could have chosen for their own big moment in the marathon history books.
Sunday, August 31 will see the race make its debut as an Abbott World Marathon Major, and Kipchoge will lead the charge off the start line on Miller St, just outside the North Sydney Oval.
As he plunges down the hill and the Harbour Bridge comes into view, with the magnificent city sprawled out before him, Kipchoge will be aiming to record Major success in his fifth different city.
Kipchoge’s career has an unrivalled highlight reel and victory in the shadow of the Sydney Opera House would add another iconic moment to the storybook.
But there are some danger men lurking in the lineup who would love to claim the moniker of Sydney’s first men’s champion in its Majors era.
Kipchoge added a 40th birthday candle to the cake last November, while his countryman Vincent Ngetich is just 26.
A 2:03 performance on debut for second place in Berlin in 2023 put him on the radar. The winner that day? Eliud Kipchoge.
Since then, it could be argued the two men’s career arcs have diverged. Ngetich has posted two third places in Tokyo plus a fourth place in Chicago last year, while Kipchoge finished 10th behind him in Tokyo in 2024 before his DNF at the Paris Olympics.
This year, Ngetich’s 2:04 in Japan in March was more than a minute quicker than Kipchoge’s 2:05:25 London just a few weeks later.
There are Ethiopian threats in the field too, with Dawit Wolde and Birhanu Legese certain to feature in the lead group.
Perhaps the unknown Sydney course to these top tier athletes will lend itself to an unpredictable winner. And there is no one more enigmatic than Yuki Kawauchi.
The Japanese maverick stunned the world in 2018 when he splashed through the wind and rain to conquer the Boston Marathon, and he earned his Six Star medal in 2023 in London.
The stage is set for someone to make history on the Harbour City’s big day, and as Kawauchi arrives in Sydney to claim star No.7, he may well have another surprise victory up his sleeve.
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