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- Eliud Kipchoge, the fastest marathon runner of all time, blamed his disappointing eighth placed finish at the 2020 London Marathon on a blocked ear.
- Kipchoge crossed the line on Sunday with a time 2:06:49, over a minute behind winner Shura Kitata.
- “I got it in the last 15km,” Kipchoge, said, according to The Guardian. “I felt it was not normal so I tried to take in saliva to open the ear and just tried to breathe normally, but my right ear couldn’t open.”
- “I’m really disappointed but this is sport.”
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Eliud Kipchoge won the 2019 London Marathon by producing the second fastest marathon time in history, however, this year, the Kenyan superstar could only muster an eighth place finish.
The reason? A blocked ear.
“I got it in the last 15km,” Kipchoge, 35, said after Sunday’s race, according to The Guardian. “I felt it was not normal so I tried to take in saliva to open the ear and just tried to breathe normally, but my right ear couldn’t open.
“That’s how it is. Then my hip and leg was really cramped. I tried to keep warm and make sure I finished.”
Kipchoge, a four time winner of the London Marathon, finished the race with a time of 2:06:49, one minute and eight seconds behind winner Shura Kitata, who edged Vincent Kipchumba in a thrilling sprint finish to claim his first ever title.
Kipchoge's time was also massively short of his own world record of 2:01:39, which he set at the Berlin Marathon in 2018.
"I'm really disappointed but this is sport," he said. "It's what normally happens in sport. It's not the end of the world.
"It's not suicide for Eliud Kipchoge to be beaten. I have more marathons. I will come back again."
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