1.59.40!

Eliud Kipchoge has become the first runner to finish a marathon in under two hours.

The 34-year-old Kenyan completed the course in Vienna, in an incredible one hour, 59 minutes and 40 seconds.

Kipchoge was racing alone but assisted by 41 pacemakers, including former Olympic and world record holders, in his attempt to achieve the milestone. 

The time will not be an official world record but is nonetheless a historic moment in distance running. 

He was greeted with a misty autumnal morning and a smattering of fans on Saturday for his bid to run an unofficial sub-two hour marathon. 

The 34-year-old marathon world record holder completed the first 21 kilometres in 59.35 minutes, 11 seconds under the two-hour pace. However, there were a few spots of rain which had not been expected and which could have hampered his attempt.

Kipchoge was being guided by rotating seven-man teams of pacemakers, many themselves world class runners, and by an electric pacecar which showed the ideal pace and the position they should be running.

The highly controlled attempt to break the two-hour barrier consists of 4.4 laps of a 9.6 kilometre course, including a long straight with a loop at each end.

The sport’s governing body, the IAAF, will not recognise the run as an official record because it is not in open competition and it uses in and out pacemakers.

Kipchoge, the reigning Olympic champion who set an official world record of 2:01.39 at the Berlin marathon in September last year, missed out by 26 seconds when he previously attempted to break the two-hour barrier in Monza in May 2017, a race run without spectators.