inside excellent life
Kenesisa Bekele after a series of physical problems and negative results participated in the Berlin marathon to relaunch his career on the fast path of the German capital, where three years ago he won in 2h03’03”.
He succeeded in his aim not only by winning the race but also by setting a crazy time of 2h01’41”, just 2 seconds from the world record of Eliud Kipchoge. Below is the comparison of the passages of the two athletes every 5km (source: Ross Tucker, @Scienceofsport).
They were born a year apart — Owens in 1913, Peacock in 1914 — in opposite corners of rural Alabama. By 1923 their families had left the sharecropping life and moved north — the Owenses to Ohio, the Peacocks to New Jersey. In 1933, in the last meet of his high school career, Peacock set the national scholastic record in the long jump. He went home, clicked on the radio, and learned that a kid in Cleveland had just broken the world record. Name of Owens. It was the first time he’d ever heard of him. Peacock will not qualify for the Olympics in Berlin due to some injuries that slowed the preparation, competed against Owens 10 times, 5 times won and 5 times lost. Read this amazing story on Sport Illustrated.
