Just like Mo Farah admitted he isn't actually Mo Farah, Kipchoge will at some point reveal he isn't 37, or 39, or 43, or 45, and this whole "you can DO it" thing will start over again. How can you be limited when you're 32, when Kipchoge is 47 and still running 2:02?
If you look at the '03 video you will note that Kipchoge has just lost one of his baby teeth in front and there is no sign of an adult tooth. He was probably around 10 back then.
Just like Mo Farah admitted he isn't actually Mo Farah, Kipchoge will at some point reveal he isn't 37, or 39, or 43, or 45, and this whole "you can DO it" thing will start over again. How can you be limited when you're 32, when Kipchoge is 47 and still running 2:02?
Exactly. But since I last posted, he has turned 48.
I spoke to a Kenyan runner this afternoon who knows Kipchoge well, and he told me that the latter is 44 or 45 years old.
This Kenyan runner, who used to be a pacemaker on the Chinese circuit, told me that Kenyan runners usually deliberately falsify their age to appear younger because that will be more attractive to potential agents and agents.
Flashback to 2003 when Kipchoge raced the 5000 m in the world championships in Paris. It might be a good idea to take stock of the photographs of that race to ascertain whether Kipchoge was 18 years old at the time.
i’m not judging here but one thing which I’m very impressed about with Kipchoge is that his form looks the same now as it did back in 2003 when he raced at 5000 m. He has still preserved that springy stride.
By the way, I’m not pointing a finger at Kipchoge or any other Kenyan runners who “falsify” their age, either deliberately or unknowingly. I think we have to realize that “age falsification” in Kenya is not regarded as unethical but simply a pragmatic necessity in many cases.
This comment is spot on. Age certification in the 1980s in Kenya was very limited because most kids weren't born at hospitals. Even today, the birth certificate assigned at birth in the hospital occurs way less than 100%. And there is plenty of incentive to deny one's age. Kids often cannot progress to high school or graduate high school on a regular calendar because they may have to work in the fields and still have to pass national exams to advance from primary school, to get into secondary school, and to get past 2nd year of secondary school. So, many kids are delayed. There was a teacher at the school I taught at in the Rift Valley who had been several grades beneath one of our seniors. I don't know whether he's truly 44 to 45 years old or just 40-42, and hence was a more reasonable 21-23 in 2003. At the 5000m, it takes years of endurance training to be among the world's best. The U.S. best at 20 was just 13:20, Jager's time, I think, at a point where the U.S. national record was 12:58. The previous fastest U20 Kenyan was around 12:50 but never beat that time. So, I think it's more likely he was older then. Many have also held on consistently near the top into their late 30s, especially in the marathon. Kipchoge has such remarkable discipline that he has held on longer than anyone, sticking to that same approach, spartan lifestyle. How many others could do that when they hit it big? Lagat is similar, except he became great only around age 26, but he stuck around to run 13:05 or so at 40. This doesn't cheat anyone of awards to my knowledge, at least as far as 2003 goes, since he raced the open race and is still taking the open races. But it makes him even that much more impressive.
I’ve pointed this about before, but if he’s really 42, there are 5 years missing. Did he start school 5 years late or did he go on a 5-year Kenyan mission after he finished school? Regardless of what age he is now, he would have been very fast as an 18-year old and people think he would shut his running career down for 5 years so he could run as a junior?
Maybe at the most E.K. is one to three years older than stated age. That would at the most make him close to 40. Do I believe E.K. can still race sub-3:34 1500m? No. A lot of readers and posters on this site can race close to their Marathon P.B. at age 40. Probably (20 or 21) years old when he earned W.C. 5000m gold and about 40 today. I don't see the problem.
Eliud’s results may seem surprising but that is because, in Kenya, on the equator so further away from the centre of the earth, the time taken to orbit the sun is greater, so each year takes a longer time. So, to us Europeans and Americans, it seems like it has been 19 years since Eliuds WC victory, but it has actually been more like 10, explaining Eliud’s great longevity. This also explains the relatively short career of some Kenyans based out of Europe, such as Daniel Komen, who struggled to adapt to the much faster ageing process.
I agree that it sounds ridiculous, but I am just going by my source who is a Kenyan former elite runner who has more information than we do about the age of Kipchoge. I have little reason to disbelieve him. Kipchoge is an absolute outlier. However, I don’t think we will ever know his true age. By the way, age vagueness in Kenya is very common and as an example my source, the former Kenyan elite runner, told me that he’s 35 years old but when I checked his profile on world athletics it had his birthdate down as 1980 which would make him now 42 years old. This does not mean that my source is a dishonest person, but simply that in Kenya “mistruths” with regard to age are acceptable, ostensibly for pragmatic reasons.
God, I hate the way people pontificate about Kenya as if its some stone age pre-literate society with no records. It's so racist. What's worse, is the people who usually do this speak so authoritatively as if they know what they're talking about without ever having set foot. It's the only country where people purport to know more than the natives.
You know, Eliud's age because he's referenced it multiple times in interviews. Yet somehow, you believe this anonymous, mysterious former elite Kenyan runner because he told you what you wanted to hear.
What are you smoking El Keniano? I know you’re Kenyan but this is nonsense what you write and if you have any connection at all to athletes in Kenyan you will know that the vast majority of junior athletes get a passport for the first time in order to run WJ or WJXC. and yes it’s almost always a made up date (and YEAR) and yes, most of the junior men are over the limit.
By the way, ask Bernard Lagat (about to turn 48!) if he knew Eliud in Kapsabet. Believe it or not he had run against him when schoolboys.
I'd say that him running a new WR makes it believable he is 37. It is probably the years of very hard training with lots of sun exposure, and being extremely lean that makes him look older.
When he won the World Champs 5000m in 2003, he was supposedly 18. The same year, my college teammate who went to school with him growing up said he was two grades ahead of him. This guy was a college sophomore at the time.
That's what's really great about Kipchoge,all the fat lazy yanks said for years he was age doping and was never 18 when he was trouncing people,yet now how can they say he is not 37 as that would mean he's really in his 40's and that would be more impressive than his 18yr old self.
I agree. We need to stop with the ridiculous obsession with Kipchoge's age. We need to accept he is 37.
Then we need to instead focus on the fact that he beats Bekele and El G at 18, then runs his lifetime pb at age 19, goes backwards for the next 6 years immediately once EPO testing is introduced, then switches to the marathon immediately the first ABP suspension takes place, and runs a maximum of twice a year for the rest of his career, gets faster and faster and is now threatening to run under 2 hours by age 40. There was an old thread from 15 years ago recently bumped up in which it was universally agreed that nobody would ever break 2 hours in the next 100 years, with 2:03 seen as the absolute limit of human potential. Little did they know that a guy who already appeared to be burnt out at 22, would be running a fraction over 2:01 fifteen years later.
^ Eliud was not burnt out. He merely failed to make the 2012 Kenyan Olympic team which puts him in quite good company including Daniel Komen. Also, he won the bronze medal at the 2004 Olympics behind El G and Bekele and the silver medal in 2008 behind Bekele. Hardly "going backwards".
That's what's really great about Kipchoge,all the fat lazy yanks said for years he was age doping and was never 18 when he was trouncing people,yet now how can they say he is not 37 as that would mean he's really in his 40's and that would be more impressive than his 18yr old self.
I agree. We need to stop with the ridiculous obsession with Kipchoge's age. We need to accept he is 37.
Then we need to instead focus on the fact that he beats Bekele and El G at 18, then runs his lifetime pb at age 19, goes backwards for the next 6 years immediately once EPO testing is introduced, then switches to the marathon immediately the first ABP suspension takes place, and runs a maximum of twice a year for the rest of his career, gets faster and faster and is now threatening to run under 2 hours by age 40. There was an old thread from 15 years ago recently bumped up in which it was universally agreed that nobody would ever break 2 hours in the next 100 years, with 2:03 seen as the absolute limit of human potential. Little did they know that a guy who already appeared to be burnt out at 22, would be running a fraction over 2:01 fifteen years later.
Your stupid theories have been debunked before, Coevett. Kipchoge didn't go backwards after EPO testing was introduced and never looked bunrt out at 22.
But by all means continue getting consumed by your hatred of blacks.
Maybe at the most E.K. is one to three years older than stated age. That would at the most make him close to 40. Do I believe E.K. can still race sub-3:34 1500m? No. A lot of readers and posters on this site can race close to their Marathon P.B. at age 40. Probably (20 or 21) years old when he earned W.C. 5000m gold and about 40 today. I don't see the problem.
Name one other world class marathoner who was setting PRs at 40. Plenty of late 30s guys but age caught up to anyone who was maxing out performance earlier on. They guys setting PRs at 37/38 have already been on the lucky side of declines.
On the other hand we have had a bunch of 18/19 year old prodigies through the years. See Jacob I for what happens if you start training hard at 14...