- Shoes & Gear.
- The much-anticipated showdown between Bekele and Eliud Kipchoge, the two fastest marathoners in history, will have to wait.
Sunday’s London Marathon Running Shoes - Gear second fastest marathoner in history.
Health - Injuries prerace bubble at an undisclosed hotel outside of the city, but he confirmed his withdrawal on Friday, citing a left calf injury.
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“I am very disappointed that I cannot race on Sunday,” Bekele said in a London Marathon press release. “It has been a tough preparation time with lockdown when I couldn’t have my NN team around me. I was in good shape but then I picked up a niggle in my left calf after two fast training sessions too close together in the last weeks of preparation.”
“I have been having treatment every day since then and I truly believed I would be ready but today it is worse and I now know I cannot race on it.”
“This race was so important to me. My time in Berlin last year gave me great confidence and motivation and I was looking forward to show that again, I have worked so hard for it. I know many people around the world have been looking forward to this race and I am sorry to disappoint my fans, the organizers and my fellow competitors. I will take time to recover and become fit again and I hope to be back in London next year.”
Kenenisa Bekele, the Second-Fastest Marathoner in History, Pulls Out of the London Marathon All About 75 Hard he said he had “prepared well” for the race. However, he also said the COVID-19 restrictions in Ethiopia had interfered with his preparation.
“Sometimes it’s not going as perfect as I planned,” he said.
The three-time Olympic champion won the Berlin Marathon last year in 2:01:41, moving into second on the all-time list. His only race in 2020 so far was a 60:22 half-marathon victory in London back in March.
He last raced the London Marathon in 2018, when he finished sixth in 2:08:53.
Cathal Dennehy is a freelance writer based in Dublin, Ireland, who covers the sport for multiple outlets from Irish newspapers to international track websites. As an athlete, he was Irish junior cross-country champion and twice raced the European Cross Country, but since injury forced his retirement his best athletic feat has been the Irish beer mile record. He’s happiest when he’s running or writing stories about world-class athletes.
