“It was my worst marathon,” lamented the Kenyan legend Eliud Kipchogeafter his retirement in the legendary distance of 42.195 kilometers at the Paris Games this Saturday.
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“It was a tough day. This is like boxing, you can train for five months for a fight and you get knocked out in two seconds. But life goes on,” said the 39-year-old marathon runner, who decided to abandon the route after the 30-kilometre mark.
“It was my worst marathon. I had never abandonedbut that’s life. They knocked me out“I’m like a boxer. In the past I won, I finished second, fifteenth and now I’m quitting. That’s how things are,” he said.
The winner of the Rio de Janeiro marathon in 2016 and the Tokyo marathon in 2021, a former world record holder, explained that he decided to stop because of “back pain.”
“The other participants encouraged me to continue, but I told them I couldn’t, that It hurt me“I felt their affection and respect,” he said.
“I don’t know what my future holds. I’ll think about it in the next three months. I want to try to continue running marathons,” he said.
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