Bekele-Kipchoge rivalry still alive after Ethiopian is added to New York Marathon field

Running greats Eliud Kipchoge and Kenenisa Bekele are set to duel once again after the latter was on Friday, 24 October confirmed to be in this year’s elite field for the New York City Marathon slated for Sunday, 2 November.

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The announcement, which also confirmed the scratching of two-time Boston Marathon champion Evans Chebet, means the Ethiopian 43-year-old will match up with Kenya’s Kipchoge for the sixth time over 42 kilometers.

Contests over the years

The pair, who in the early years of their athletics careers faced off on the tracks, met on the road for the first time in 2014, when Kipchoge triumphed at the Chicago Marathon in a winning time of 2:04.11.

Bekele, then, could only manage fourth, clocking 2:05.51.

Fast forward two years later, the two met in the 2016 London Marathon, where Kipchoge, again, came out tops, winning in a course record time of 2:03.05, while Bekele was third, timing 2:06.36.

Their next head-to-head match-up came up a year later at the 2017 Berlin Marathon, where a red-hot Kipchoge dominated once more, winning in 2:03.32, just months after narrowly missing his Breaking 2 attempt in Monza, Italy. As for Bekele? He did not finish.

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Kipchoge, in the fourth meeting a year later at the 2018 London Marathon, won the duel again, winning in a time of 2:04.17 as Bekele settled for sixth place.

That race proved to be the last in a span of six years, before the age-old rivalry was renewed once more during last year’s Olympic Games in Paris - an occasion widely regarded as the ‘final showdown.’

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Its results, however, were a tad underwhelming, and gave Bekele his first win over Kipchoge.

Under the heat of the hilly course, the two veterans suffered immensely - Bekele toughing out a hamstring injury picked on the way to finish 39th in a time of 2:12.24, while Kipchoge took himself out midway for his first DNF of his marathon career.

A sad way to bow out?

Not really, as the two men battling father time are on the road again for what could be the final hurrah.

They are no longer the big shakers - Kichoge last won in 2023 and Bekele, a three-time Olympic champion on the track, is running his first marathon since failing to finish in Valencia last year - but will again make the headlines, at least in the race’s buildup.

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