NAIROBI: Two-time Olympic marathon champion Eliud Kipchoge will run the Sydney Marathon in the month of August, he said on Thursday.

The 40-year-old Kenyan athlete, who won back-toback Olympic titles in 2016 (Rio de Janeiro) and 2020 (Tokyo), became in 2019 the first man to run a marathon in under two hours with a time of one hour, fifty-nine minutes and 40 secondsin the city of Vienna. That did not count as an official record, however, as standard competition rules were not in place.

`I`m so excited, Kipchoge said in a statement.

`This is not only my first time running the TCS Sydney Marathon, but also my first time running in Oceania. Running in Australia is a great opportunity for me.

He has a record of 16 wins in 21 officially ratified marathon events, including 10 consecutive victories from 2014 to 2019.

Kipchoge, who has run the second fastest official marathon ever with a time of two hours, one minute and nine seconds, will take part in next month`s London Marathon before travelling to the Australian city of Sydney.-Reuters