Eliud Kipchoge has pledged to regain his place as the world’s best marathon runner after struggling at yesterday’s London Marathon.
The world record holder for the distance suffered only his second defeat in 13 marathons in wet and windy conditions in the capital.
Struggling with a blocked ear in the final 15 kilometres, he eventually dropped to eighth place.
But when asked if he expected to regain his place as the No1 marathon runner globally, he said: “Absolutely yes. I’m looking forward to going back to training and focusing on doing the right thing at the right time in the future.”
Mo Farah, who had acted as a pacemaker for British runners aiming for the Olympic standard, brushed off Kipchoge’s performance as a one-off.
“This is sport, this is what happens,” he said. “We are human and you can have an off day. You can get things wrong, it happens. We make it look easy for what we do. A lot of people do watch you and expect you to win. But this happens.”
