Marathon Champion Kipchoge to Defend Olympic Title in 2021

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Olympic marathon champion and, the greatest marathon runner in history Eliud Kipchoge has maintained he will defend his Olympic title in Tokyo even after the games were postponed.

On Tuesday, President Thomas Bach of the International Olympic Committee and Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe agreed to postpone the Tokyo 2020 Olympics by about one year.

“[T]he IOC president and the Prime Minister of Japan have concluded that the Games … must be rescheduled to a date beyond 2020 but not later than summer 2021, to safeguard the health of the athletes, everybody involved in the Olympic Games and the international community,” said a joint statement by the Tokyo 2020 organizing committee and the IOC.

Kipchoge through his Twitter feed, welcomed the decision and said he will still compete to defend his title.

“All in all a very wise decision to postpone the Olympics until 2021. I look forward to come back to Japan to defend my Olympic title next year and look forward to witness a wonderful event.”

Kipchoge, became the first person to run a marathon in under two hours in an unofficial event in October 2019. He is also the world-record holder with a time of 2 hours, 1 minute, 39 seconds set in Berlin in 2018.

In Rio, Kipchoge became only the second Kenyan man to win the Olympic marathon title after the late Samuel Wanjiru in 2008.