For Olympic-bound Kipchoge, marathon is life
You can now binge on The Last Milestone, the story of Kenya’s marathon star and world record legend Eliud Kipchoge, on streaming platform Showmax.
On the morning of 12 October 2019 in Vienna, Kipchoge shattered “the last barrier to modern athletics” by running a marathon in under two hours, becoming the first man to do so in the history of mankind.
The inspirational documentary running on DStv is an intimate portrait of Kipchoge—the defending Olympic marathon champion—as he prepares for his record-shattering feat three years ago.
Directed by Emmy winner and Grammy nominee Jake Scott, produced by Academy Awards nominees Ridley Scott (Gladiator, Thelma and Louise, Gucci), the documentary follows his journey from his training grounds in Kenya to the state-of-the-art facilities in Europe, to his record attempt on the roads of Vienna, Austria.
Speaking about the film when it was first announced, director Jake Scott said, “we set out to document an extraordinary athlete attempting the seemingly impossible. Eliud Kipchoge ran for mankind that day and with it delivered his belief that ‘no human is limited’. What we discovered was the power of humility to inspire.”
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The barrier-breaking sub-two-hour marathon, that Kipchoge finished at a historic time of 1:59:40.2 was organised to inspire hope and break one of the last milestones in sporting history.
In the Vienna race, Kipchoge had access to fresh reinforcements from elite athletes by his side throughout until just before the finish.
“In the journey of life there are ups and downs. In a marathon, there are a lot of challenges, ups and downs. There is pain in training, pain in running and joy at the end of the marathon. So I can say the marathon is life,” says Kipchoge in the trailer.
Kipchoge became the first man to run a full marathon, 42.95km, in under two hours and he also holds the world record over the distance at 2:01:39.
In the show Kipchoge, an avid reader, also shares inspirational messages that have come to define his mentality and his legendary athletics career, which also includes winning a world record the Berlin Marathon in 2018 and record four wins at the London Marathon besides a gold medal at the Rio Olympics in 2016.
Kipchoge’s next major marathon will be at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, which are streaming live on Showmax Pro between Friday, July 23 and August 8.
On his way to another historic moment, Kipchoge will be looking to become only the third man to win back-to-back Olympic marathon gold medals.
