Eliud Kipchoge and Kenenisa Bekele are no longer just competing against each other and the clock. Father Time has entered the race.

In New York City on Sunday, Bekele, 43, and Kipchoge, who turns 41 on Wednesday, will toe the start line of a marathon together for the sixth time. It will be Kipchoge’s debut in the event, the only major he is yet to run in, while Bekele finished sixth there in 2021.

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Two glittering careers are now into their twilight years. For the better part of two decades, Kipchoge versus Bekele has effectively been Kenya against Ethiopia, the two heavyweights of the world’s distance-running superpowers.

They were the best men’s marathoners of the 2010s, after duking it out on the track in the previous decade, and theirs is one of sport’s great rivalries, alongside Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal (tennis), Muhammad Ali versus Joe Frazier (boxing), Lionel Messi against Cristiano Ronaldo (soccer), Usain Bolt and Justin Gatlin (100m).

“I will make a huge announcement on Sunday afternoon on my program for next year,” Kipchoge said at the pre-race press conference. He has said that this will be his final major marathon. ”I still line up and try to push myself. I am happy to run at the age of 41 to still be able to run with the young people,” he continued.

”I want to leave the sport to the better people than myself , so I showed them t