Sang highlights Kipchoge's best achievement

World record marathon holder Eliud Kipchoge's coach Patrick Sang' has highlighted what he thinks is the biggest achievement that the Marathoner has had in his career to date.

Sang', an Olympics steeplechase silver medalist in 1992, prides himself in coaching the likes of Eliud Kipchoge, Faith Kipyegon, and Geoffrey Kamworor to considerable global success at the Kaptagat Training Camp.

Many would pick running over the distance in under two hours as the biggest achievement for Kipchoge but his coach feels that managing to navigate through his journey after realizing the talent he has remains the biggest accomplishment.

In an interview with World Athletics, Sang also noted that the attempts to run below two hours in Monza and Vienna were part of the athlete's biggest challenges in his career spanning almost two decades.

"It’s difficult to pick one best moment. For me, the biggest thing is that, having realised he has a special talent, he has managed to navigate this journey to make his talent work for him at the top level. It has been a real journey. When he won the world 5000m title in Paris in 2003, Eliud was still a teenager and he managed to beat Kenenisa Bekele and Hicham El Guerrouj, who at that time were both very special athletes. But that was just the start of Eliud’s journey towards success.

"The sub-two-hour attempts in Monza and Vienna were probably the biggest challenges of his career so far. And of course successfully defending his Olympic title in difficult conditions in Tokyo also has to be up there," Sang said.

Kipchoge has had a very successful athletics career and is on course to winning a third Male Athlete of the Year award after making it to the final five-man list released by the global body yesterday.

In the interview, Sang further waxed lyrical of the back-to-back Olympic marathon winner for his trust in his coach, making it easy for the coach to train the athlete in the right manner.

"Generally, the athletes I work with and have been successful place trust in the coach. Without trust, you cannot go far with the athlete. Athletes such as Eliud and Geoffrey have never asked me, ‘why do we do this or that?’. They just trust the process and do the job – although sometimes that puts a bit more pressure on you as a coach. I don’t want to claim all the credit for everything my athletes achieve because we are surrounded by a very good team," he added.