Kipchoge and the missing glory at the Boston Marathon

Boston Marathon 2023 will start with the men's wheelchair content starting at 9:02 am local time, ie 20:02 Hanoi time on April 17, followed by the women's wheelchair. The men's and women's marathon content competed at 9:37 and 9:47, respectively, on the same day. The competition route starts from the town of Hopkinton, Massachusetts, with the destination on Boylston Street, Boston.

"I think the Boston Marathon means a lot to me," Kipchoge told the AP before his debut. "This is the oldest marathon, I think any professional athlete should compete at least once, if not many times in his life, on the streets of Boston."

The 38-year-old legend - a gold medalist at the 2016 and 2020 Olympic marathons - will compete for the first time at the Boston Marathon on April 17 in the 127th period of the oldest marathon in the world, and is ranked in one of the most prestigious races in the world. The most famous marathon event. Victory will help Kipchoge have 11th major championship, after four times in London (2015, 2016, 2018, 2019), four times in Berlin (2015, 2017, 2018, 2022), once in Chicago ( 2014) and once in Tokyo (2021).

Kipchoge owns four of the six best marathon achievements in history, including the top two, the world record of 2 hours 1 minute 9 seconds set at Berlin Marathon 2022 and 2 hours 1 minute 39 seconds also at Berlin 2018. He also holds records in London and Tokyo.

That's not to mention the achievement of 1 hour 59 minutes 40.2 seconds in Vienna, Austria, in October 2019 made him the only person in the world to run a sub2 marathon. However, this achievement is not recognized as a world record because the runner born in 1984 competed with controlled ambient conditions, such as no opponent and a rotating team of pacers.

However, there are views that Kipchoge's career is only complete if the Kenyan athlete faces the hills and headwinds - a specialty unique to Boston. "I think Kipchoge is very satisfied with her career," said Des Linden, an American female athlete who competed in London 2012, Rio 2016 and won the 2018 Boston Championship. "But there will always be that question mark, how will Kipchoge compete and can win the Boston Marathon? So it's great that Kipchoge decided to compete to find that answer."

Having never been to Boston before this week, one of Kipchoge's first missions was to get to know the track, starting with a quadruple downhill, followed by the signature Heartbreak hill around the 32km mark, then descending Sea level back in Back Bay. Kipchoge said that the Boston Marathon is not a race suitable for fast time, emphasizing that it would be gratifying to win the slower and more tactical marathon. "I don't mind the time, but I'll try to finish first," he said.

Fans were also delighted to see Kipchoge compete in Boston. Many people were shocked to see the world marathon legend running along the Charles River this week. The 38-year-old record holder also held a private press conference on Friday, April 14, where many other elite athletes appeared at tables in the hotel's ballroom.

"Kipchoge's arrival in Boston was beyond anyone's expectations," said Jack Fleming, president of the Boston Athletics Association (BAA) - the organizer of the Boston Marathon - said. According to Fleming, the BAA convinced Kipchoge to attend the tournament for a long time, but it was not until 2022 that the Kenyan legend confirmed the competition.

Even the competitors are eager to compete with Kipchoge knowing that winning against the Kenyan athlete will be especially meaningful. C.J. Albertson - one of America's top runners of the past two years - said: "It's all so exciting to run with the best. You certainly feel excited standing next to Kipchoge. Hopefully the best has can help me get to the top."

But that admiration and respect inevitably disappears on the track. "It's not that I hang a picture of Kipchoge on the wall to set goals or anything like that," Scott Fauble, a two-time US record holder at the Boston Marathon - emphasized: "Once the race starts, even though Kipchoge amazing, amazing, he's just a regular competitor, like everyone else I'm sure Kipchoge will run well, but I'm not going to take the time to kiss his feet or anything anything like that. I'm not demeaning Kipchoge, but I'm not here to be a spectator of a show called Kipchoge."

Boston Marathon, founded in 1897, is the oldest running race in the world, and belongs to the World Marathon Majors (WMM) system, alongside five races in New York, Chicago, London, Berlin and Tokyo. This year's tournament is estimated to have 30,000 athletes participating. According to the BAA, this year's group of professional male athletes has 15 people who achieved less than 2 hours and 7 minutes.