Technology to play key role in Kipchoge's run

What you need to know:

  • Organisers of the INEOS 1:59 Challenge have, meanwhile, confirmed that Kipchoge will use Maurten sports drinks in Vienna, just like he has been doing in all his marathons.
  • “We are still making the final decision on how to get the drinks to him,” Valentijn Trouw, athletes’ manager at Kipchoge’s stable, Global Sports Communications, said on Monday.

Last Wednesday, Eliud Kipchoge made it very clear that he’s going to Vienna not just to run 42 kilometres in under two hours, but — “most importantly” — to inspire mankind that no human is limited.

At a reception by Isuzu East Africa to announce an Isuzu D-Max single-cab pick-up incentive for the world record holder should he dip under two hours on October 12, vintage Kipchoge, the philosopher, unleashed yet another of his philosophical quotes:

“I’m going to Vienna not to win, but to beat the time… I’m going to Vienna to inspire the whole generation… I’m going to Vienna to sell the idea that no human is limited… I’m going to Vienna to inspire that journalist to know that you can not only wake up, write a story in a newspaper and go back home.

I want to inspire that journalist to write a story that can make a country a beautiful country … I’m going to Vienna to inspire that lawyer who wakes up in the morning to go to his office… I’m going to Vienna to inspire that engineer to know that he’s not limited at all… I’m going to Vienna to inspire that teacher to put all his mind teaching, for the sake of the children… I’m going to Vienna to inspire that driver to drive carefully from Malaba to Mombasa… I’m going to Vienna to inspire the human generation. It’s not about the world record. It’s about history and inspiring the whole of humanity.”

Organisers of the INEOS 1:59 Challenge have, meanwhile, confirmed that Kipchoge will use Maurten sports drinks in Vienna, just like he has been doing in all his marathons.

“We are still making the final decision on how to get the drinks to him,” Valentijn Trouw, athletes’ manager at Kipchoge’s stable, Global Sports Communications, said on Monday.

At the Nike-sponsored “Breaking2” attempt where he fell just 26 seconds shy of a sub-two hour run in 2017 in Monza, Italy, Kipchoge was handed his drinks, on the run, from a bicycle by Trouw and co.