Kenya: Kipchoge keen on becoming global peace envoy once glittering career ends

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Shuji Kajiyama/Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved

Double Olympic marathon champion Eliud Kipchoge has set his sights on becoming a world peace envoy once he decides to end his glittering career, but still plans on running for "years to come."

The 36-year-old Kenyan became just the third man in history to win back-to-back Olympic gold medals over 26.2 miles earlier this month when he beat the field by 80 seconds on a hot and humid course in Sapporo, Japan.

Defending his Rio 2016 title at Tokyo 2020 confirmed Kipchoge's status as the greatest marathon runner ever, adding to a resume that includes the world record of 2:01:39 from 2018 and running the first ever sub-two-marathon, albeit in unofficial circumstances, as part of the INEOS 1:59 Challenge in 2019.

Kipchoge, who was speaking to SNTV to promote a new movie documenting his sub-two-hour achievement, "Kipchoge: The Last Milestone", still rates that day in Vienna as the biggest accomplishment of his career, which has seen him win 13 of the 15 major marathons he has run since turning to the discipline in 2013.

The Kenyan is currently taking a break from competing and will decide on his plan for next year within the next two months, but would not confirm whether he intends to go for an unprecedented hat-trick of Olympic gold medals at Paris 2024.

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