Stunt or Stunning? Eliud Kipchoge narrowly misses sub-two hour goal in Nike marathon

The 32-year-old's time smashed the official mark of 2:02.57 set by fellow Kenyan Dennis Kimetto in Berlin in 2014 but will not enter the record books largely due to a non-compliant system of pacemaking.

The event's sponsor, sportswear group Nike, initially gave the time as 2:00.24 but later revised it up by a second.

The Olympic champion said:

Kipchoge and the event's only other competitors, Eritrean Zersenay Tadese and Ethiopian Lelisa Desisaran, ran behind an arrow-head of pace-setters, to reduce drag, and a car beaming a green line on the road behind it to show the required speed for the sub-two hours target.

Amid deep scepticism, Nike pitched the attempt as sport's "moon shot", with a keen eye on sales of its running shoes. It designed a lightweight shoe, Zoom Vaporfly Elite, with carbon-fibre in-sole as part of the meticulous preparations.

Nike's arch rival, German firm adidas, also has its own 'Sub2' project, also with a new shoe. In 2014, Runners World magazine predicted a sub-two under normal race conditions would not happen until 2075, based on analysis of more than 10,000 top marathon performances.

The race began in pre-dawn gloom at a brutal pace behind pacemakers who were world class runners in their own right, including former world champion middle distance runner Bernard Lagat of the United States.

The Monza track was chosen for its wide, sweeping curves, lack of undulation and cool, low-wind environment.

The sub-two hour mark required a pace below four minutes and 35 seconds per mile, which the determined Kipchoge managed to stick to until falling behind the pace car in the last two laps of the 2.4 km circuit.

The youngest competitor, 26-year-old Desisa, fell off the pace first and finished in 2:14:10, followed by the oldest, 35-year-old Tadese (2:06:51), the half-marathon world record holder.

When the record books reflect on Breaking2, it will be Nike – and not Eliud Kipchoge – who are saluted. It’s the US sportswear giant’s baby, a seemingly impossible dream missed by a tantalising margin. After Saturday’s experiment, a sub two-hour marathon is not only possible, but probable.

The unavoidable backdrop to the attempt was Nike’s commercial interests – a swoosh adorned just about everything on race day – while the absence of a substantial crowd or media contributed to an unauthentic feel. It was Nike’s scientists, Nike’s cutting-edge shoes, Nike’s pacing system, with Kipchoge and Co. playing the role of test subjects as opposed to elite athletes.

But what the Kenyan achieved was remarkable. He ran two-and-a-half minutes quicker than anyone in history on a legal course, in legal shoes with rolling elite athletes as pacemakers. Sure, they were guided by lasers and had a human shield (and possible drafting from the pace car), but you don’t shave 2:27 off a world record without a heroic exertion. Despite all Nike’s modifications, this was still a test of the human body.

Amid the chaos currently surrounding athletics, attention was finally back on the sport’s primary purpose – seeing the limits of finely-tuned athletes. To Nike’s credit, this was facilitated by their programme, so does it really matter if it was also a transparent marketing ploy? New formats should be encouraged if the sport is to survive and Breaking2, along with the new Nitro Athletics, are helping keep the sport afloat.