Wilson Kipsang Says He's After World Record In Tokyo Marathon Tonight

El Caballo

https://www.iaaf.org/news/preview/tokyo-marathon-2017-kipsang

Predicted 2:02:50 in the Pre-Race press conference. Highly unlikely in my opinion but the pacers have been asked to go through halfway in 61:30. The course has being changed slightly this year in the hopes that it will be faster, the organisers think it will be a few others like marathon legend Seko disagree. Course record is 2:05:42 which still should be destroyed when you have an athlete like Kipsang running. The Early fast pace should be interesting whether they managed to pull it off or not. Kipsang will be also debuted Adidas shoe for their Sub-2 project for anyone interested in that:

http://news.adidas.com/Global/Latest-News/ALL/adidas-launches-ambitious-sub2-programme-with-the-introduction-of-its-adizero-sub2-marathon-shoe/s/cbcfed7b-b3bb-4a77-bcff-73a3927bddb9

For anyone interested in watching tonight, watch athletics have a live stream here starting at Midnight Irish time here:

http://www.watchathletics.com/article/9957/live-tokyo-marathon-2017/

El Caballo

Here's a more in depth preview from japan running news

http://japanrunningnews.blogspot.ie/2017/02/kipsang-predicts-20250-tokyo-marathon.html?m=1

El Caballo

My bad, coverage starts at 1.05am

tang1

No WR let alone sub 2 for Kipsang, 2.03.58 for a new course record.

El Caballo

tang1 wrote: »

No WR let alone sub 2 for Kipsang, 2.03.58 for a new course record.

Faded a lot from 30k to the finish, they were 10 seconds up on Kimetto's WR split through 30k but it wasn't to be.

On the Sub-2 thing, the first 5k split was 14:14 which is 2:00.06 pace, the thing is that the course loses 100 feet of elevation in that first 5k and they were fresh but even with all that combined, the pace was still way too hot for them to hold despite the splits easing up to a more reasonable pace after the quick start. We are decades away from seeing anything close to sub-2, one single 5k split at that pace blows the field up nevermind 8 and a half 5k splits at that pace.. Kimetto in his WR ran one 5k section at sub-2 pace.

CR 7

Kipsang will be also debuted Adidas shoe for their Sub-2 project

I'm gonna be cynical and say that the claim to be going for a world record was just to draw attention to the new shoes. But it looks like even taking 100g off their previous racing flats hasn't had a huge impact.

Itziger

Who's going to be the first brave mortal to buy the sub 2 shoes? I suppose you could say you were aiming at a sub 2 Half

average_runner

CR 7 wrote: »

I'm gonna be cynical and say that the claim to be going for a world record was just to draw attention to the new shoes. But it looks like even taking 100g off their previous racing flats hasn't had a huge impact.

I would say your right but Berlin is the place for the wr

CR 7

average_runner wrote: »

I would say your right but Berlin is the place for the wr

I'd like to see a big showdown(either in Berlin or elsewhere), with Team Nike v Team Adidas both going for 2 hours.(And failing spectacularly)

average_runner

CR 7 wrote: »

I'd like to see a big showdown(either in Berlin or elsewhere), with Team Nike v Team Adidas both going for 2 hours.(And failing spectacularly)

Haha.

I like to see a proper shot at it. The best in the world going for it in the same race. Pacers for sub 2, if that means new pacer every 10k so be it.

Massive prize for the one that gets it.

BeepBeep67

CR 7 wrote: »

I'm gonna be cynical and say that the claim to be going for a world record was just to draw attention to the new shoes. But it looks like even taking 100g off their previous racing flats hasn't had a huge impact.

Kipsang's sub2's are 150gms, so nothing breakthrough there. To live up to their claim they need to find another 80gms and still develop a shoe of reasonable substance that can handle a marathon even for a light elite East African.

CR 7

BeepBeep67 wrote: »

Kipsang's sub2's are 150gms, so nothing breakthrough there. To live up to their claim they need to find another 80gms and still develop a shoe of reasonable substance that can handle a marathon even for a light elite East African.

I've read some articles claiming that having more cushioning is more important than making a lightweight shoe, and then completely conflicting articles that you need to minimise "unsprung" weight as much as possible, even to go as far as to glue insoles with cushioning directly to the athlete's foot. I guess we won't know until the 2 hours is actually broken, and I'd be surprised if they didn't find that the same shoes used up to now will do fine for it.

El Caballo

CR 7 wrote: »

I'm gonna be cynical and say that the claim to be going for a world record was just to draw attention to the new shoes. But it looks like even taking 100g off their previous racing flats hasn't had a huge impact.

World record, I have no doubt that Kipsang believed he could've broken it last night, it was actually an incredible run from him. Sub-2 is an obvious marketing stunt, any fan of athletics understands none of the current athletes are ever going tobreak 2, maybe they're chilfren might get close but everything else is an exercise in PR from the shoe companies.

HigginsJ

El Caballo wrote: »

World record, I have no doubt that Kipsang believed he could've broken it last night, it was actually an incredible run from him. Sub-2 is an obvious marketing stunt, any fan of athletics understands none of the current athletes are ever going tobreak 2, maybe they're chilfren might get close but everything else is an exercise in PR from the shoe companies.

Can I ask what the biggest barriers to sub 2 hours are?

Are the elite athletes at the moment simply at the max of what the human body is capable of or is there a series of events that you could put together that would give them a chance. I'm not talking about some stupid downhill course but if one person was to be put in ideal conditions how likely is it?

TFBubendorfer

HigginsJ wrote: »

Can I ask what the biggest barriers to sub 2 hours are?

The fact that they are still 3 minutes off! That is a huge margin.

The last 18 years the record has gone down by 2:45 and it's only going to get harder as they are getting closer and closer to the physiological limits

El Caballo

HigginsJ wrote: »

Can I ask what the biggest barriers to sub 2 hours are?

Are the elite athletes at the moment simply at the max of what the human body is capable of or is there a series of events that you could put together that would give them a chance. I'm not talking about some stupid downhill course but if one person was to be put in ideal conditions how likely is it?

The biggest barrier is knowledge of the human body and the training required to get there, we don't yet know what training is needed and gains will come as we discover more about the human body.

Krusty_Clown

Plus, nobody can run equivalent times over shorter distances. The equivalent:
1/2 Marathon: 57:01 (WR: 58:23)
10 Miles: 42:45 (WR: 44:24)
10k: 25:34 (WR: 26:17)
The above is all pretty speculative (numbers vary based on the calculator you use), but you get the idea. Current runners are a long way off running a sub 2 marathon, without some level of illegitimate significant assistance/boosting and even then, unlikely to realize a time like that.

average_runner

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

Plus, nobody can run equivalent times over shorter distances. The equivalent:
1/2 Marathon: 57:01 (WR: 58:23)
10 Miles: 42:45 (WR: 44:24)
10k: 25:34 (WR: 26:17)
The above is all pretty speculative (numbers vary based on the calculator you use), but you get the idea. Current runners are a long way off running a sub 2 marathon, without some level of illegitimate significant assistance/boosting and even then, unlikely to realize a time like that.

That really shows how far off they are. Good post