When you are the greatest, you are the greatest. It can be uphill, downhill, flat, it can be paced or not, it can be sunny or raining, hot or cold, windy or still, regardless the best runner wins. EK is the best and regardless of the conditions he will defeat, handily defeat, athletes of lesser caliber. Chebet, Kipruto, et al are very good, but they are not close to EK. On a fast flat course they are 2-3 minutes slower. EK wins by at least 90 seconds on Monday, probably more. The actual time will be dictated by the race day conditions.
This post was edited 46 seconds after it was posted.
I would for sure take the field over Eliud Kipchoge. Now this has nothing to do with the course. Eliud has been good for a long time but all good things come to an end. Eliud might win but if I were a betting man, I would bet against it.
When you are the greatest, you are the greatest. It can be uphill, downhill, flat, it can be paced or not, it can be sunny or raining, hot or cold, windy or still, regardless the best runner wins. EK is the best and regardless of the conditions he will defeat, handily defeat, athletes of lesser caliber. Chebet, Kipruto, et al are very good, but they are not close to EK. On a fast flat course they are 2-3 minutes slower. EK wins by at least 90 seconds on Monday, probably more. The actual time will be dictated by the race day conditions.
No, it can't be cold. It can't be rainy. He lost the only time he ran under those conditions. He has never run a hilly race over any distance, so 'it can be....hilly' is also not true at this point. If it's flat and good weather, he wins most of the time. I'm not saying he'll lose. I'm not saying he sucks. I'm saying your reasoning does.
The closest person I've seen to Kipchoge in my lifetime as far as the dominance of an individual sport (not a team sport) is Tiger Woods from like 2000 to probably 2008. I'm not a know it all data guy but I believe that time frame is right. His 2000 season maybe the greatest in the history of golf. 22 appearances that season. 10 wins, Including 3 of the 4 majors (the US Open by FIFTEEN stokes and The Open Championship by EIGHT). He finished outside of the Top 5 only 3x!!
I'd say Lance Armstrong is up there, as well. Obviously it is tainted (heck, Kipchoge and Tiger's dominance could be, as well) but if that wasn't there, it for sure would be right there, maybe even at the top of the list for individual dominance over an extended period of time.
Kipchoge seems to have a lot of hero worship at this point, but honestly I’m rooting for the upset or at least someone to give him a real scare. He’s so great he’s made marathoning more boring to me and I’m ready for the narrative to change.
And it will happen one day, and it won’t necessarily come with any warning. To the poster who said it’s a certainty that Kipchoge will win: just because I’ve seen a thousand sheep without wings, doesn’t mean there isn’t a winged sheep.