Kenya’s Eliud Kipchoge will race the Berlin marathon on September 24, a year after having set a new world record on the same course, his management team announced Thursday.
Kipchoge will be aiming to become the first athlete in history to win the race five times. He is currently equal on four victories with Ethiopian Haile Gebrselassie.
Kipchoge, the first man to break the two-hour barrier in the marathon during the INEOS 1:59 Challenge, set the official world record in Berlin in both 2018 and 2022 and also took the title in 2015 and 2017.
“On my road to the Paris Olympic Games, I like to go back to the BWM Berlin Marathon, since to me this is the perfect preparation. I have great memories there and I look forward to running the streets of Berlin again, together with the thousands of runners that will join,” said Kipchoge.
Kipchoge, who finished sixth in his most recent marathon in Boston, set the current world record of 2:01:09 a year ago in the German capital.
The 38-year-old, whose first global title was over 5,000m at the 2003 Paris world championships, will be eyeing a third successive Olympic marathon gold in the French capital next year after winning in both Rio and Tokyo.