Tokyo (AFP)

Already entered in the history of running, the Kenyan defending champion Eliud Kipchoge is the favorite of the marathon of the Olympic Games played on Sunday in Sapporo, and does not intend to stop there.

"The Olympics are not like anything else. It's only every four years, it's watched by millions of people around the world, it's very important," warns Kipchoge, interviewed before the biggest sporting event of the world.

The Kenyan knows the legendary race, he had dominated it five years ago in Rio.

Since then, he has broken the world record of 42.195 km (2:01:39 in Berlin in 2018), he has gone under 2 hours of an unofficial marathon in 2019, and he has won four of the five major marathons he has contested. .

At 36, the greatest runner of all time will be deprived of his non-selected Ethiopian rival Kenenisa Bekele for a duel fantasized by all running enthusiasts.

But he can still make history by becoming the third man to achieve the double after the Ethiopian Abebe Bikila (1960 and 1964) and the East German Waldemar Cierpinski (1976 and 1980).

Above all, Kipchoge takes part in his 4th Olympic Games, from which he has always returned with a medal: bronze over 5,000 m in 2004, silver over 5,000 m in 2008, and therefore gold in the marathon in 2016.

"In 2004 I was still young, I had a lot of speed, I had this physical freshness, I was new to this world," he recalls.

File on Eliud Kipchoge, who participates in his fourth Olympic Games in Tokyo John SAEKI AFP

- "Still there for a while" -

But the man known for his life as a monk-runner in Kaptagat is starting to look his age (36 years old, 37 in November).

At the London Marathon in 2020 he had experienced his first defeat in seven years, 8th, far behind the Ethiopian winner Shura Kitata present in Sapporo.

Kipchoge, however, does not consider his farewell to Japan.

“I don't know when my last race will be, but I'll still be here for a while. My mind is on the Olympics. My end of career will come, it is approaching, in front of me, but I still want to inspire people around the world, I am still a very good performer. For example, I wish I had run the six biggest marathons before I stopped, "he says.

After Chicago, London and Berlin, which he all won, he would therefore be left with New York, Boston and Tokyo.

Eliud Kipchoge runs the Enschede marathon, the Netherlands, April 18, 2021 PIROSCHKA VAN DE WOUW POOL / AFP / Archives

In preparation for his Olympic marathon, Kipchoge was reassured in April with a victory in a convincing time in Enschede (Netherlands) in 2 h 4 min 30 sec.

In Sapporo, he will have to deal with the Ethiopians but also with the conditions: around 27 degrees but above all a humidity level of over 80%, which prevents perspiration from evaporating and therefore the body from regulating its temperature.

With this data, and as is the tradition in major championships, the paces should be quite far from the records, which has never prevented Kipchoge from triumphing.

On the bedside table of the "philosopher", one of his nicknames: "Atomic Habits, Un Rien Can Change Everything", by James Clear, a book that gives the recipe for changing your habits (rather the bad ones).

Familiar with victories, the Kenyan is advised to change his rather after the Games ...

© 2021 AFP