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PHOTOS: Kipchoge becomes first runner to dip under 2 hours for marathon

Olympic champion and world record holder from Kenya clocks 1 hour, 59 minutes and 40 seconds
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Marathon world record holder Kenya’s Eliud Kipchoge and Britain’s richest person Jim Ratcliffe, the founder of the INEOS Chemicals company, take questions from journalists at the Iffley Road Track, where in 1954 British athlete Roger Bannister ran to become the first person ever to break the four minute mile barrier in Oxford, England, Tuesday, April 30, 2019. Eliud Kipchoge has funding from Britain’s richest man, Jim Ratcliffe, who founded chemicals group INEOS, for his bid to break the two-hour marathon barrier again later this year. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)

Eliud Kipchoge has become the first athlete to run a marathon in less than two hours, although it will not count as a world record.

The Olympic champion and world record holder from Kenya clocked 1 hour, 59 minutes and 40 seconds Saturday at the INEOS 1:59 Challenge, an event set up for the attempt.

Kipchoge was supported by 36 pacemakers who accompanied him in alternating groups, one of the reasons the IAAF will not ratify the time as a world record.

Running

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