Eliud Kipchoge reforged the limits of the marathon on 25 September 2022, stopping the clock at 2:01:09 to remove 30 seconds from his own world record in Berlin.
Halfway in under an hour
From the gun, the Kenyan set an infernal rhythm. He crossed 5 kilometres in 14:14 and 10 kilometres in 28:23, a split that pointed toward something historic.
At halfway, the clock read 59:51 — the fastest first-half split ever seen in a marathon. Ethiopia’s Andamlak Belihu, contesting only his second race over the distance, was still locked onto his shoulder.
When the pacemaker stepped off
The turning point arrived near the 25-kilometre mark. The final pacemaker withdrew, and the burden shifted entirely onto Kipchoge’s frame as he began to shed Belihu.
He reached 30 kilometres in 1:25:40, alone. At 35 kilometres he still projected a finish beneath 2:01, and he drove through the closing stretch to carve out 2:01:09.
Belihu, the last man to challenge, faded to fourth. Mark Korir and Tadu Abate crossed well adrift, more than four minutes behind the new standard.
A record book written in Berlin
The performance gave Kipchoge the two fastest official times in history — this mark and the 2:01:39 he delivered on the same Berlin asphalt in 2018. Only his 1:59:40 run in Vienna, staged under ineligible conditions, sits faster.
It was his fourth Berlin victory, drawing him level with Haile Gebrselassie. A year later he would return to become the first man to win the race five times.
“My legs and my body still feel young,” the 37-year-old told reporters afterwards. “But the most important thing is my mind, and that also feels fresh and young.”
He had already won two Olympic titles and run a marathon beneath two hours. In Berlin, he simply narrowed the gap between what is possible and what is official.
