Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 60, July 2014 | Page 18

Ma feature
Wilson wins
the 2014
London
Marathon.

– BY SEAN FALCONER

W

hen he clocked 2:03:23 to win the
Berlin Marathon last year and set a new world
record, Kenyan superstar Wilson Kipsang further
cemented his position as the world’s number
one marathoner. His first big victory came in the
2010 Frankfurt Marathon, which he won in a
course record 2:04:57, followed by wins in the
2011 Lake Biwa Marathon in Japan (2:06:13,
new course record), then another Frankfurt title
with a 2:03:42 – just four seconds off the then
five-week-old world record set by countryman
Patrick Makua.
In 2012 Wilson won the London Marathon in
2:04:44 – just four seconds off the course record
– and the tough Honolulu Marathon, with a
bronze medal at the London Olympic Marathon
in between. Then in 2013 he rewrote the record
books with his win in Berlin, taking 15 seconds
off Patrick’s mark, and followed that up with a
course record 2:04