'Marathon is life' and Kipchoge ready for greatest high

When he started out running in the early 2000s, a young Eliud Kipchoge simply wanted to get on a plane and go to Europe.

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Two decades later, the Kenyan marathon legend is heading to Paris for what could be his final challenge at the 2024 Olympics.

At 39, he says he is hoping to make history in August by winning the Olympic marathon three times in succession, overtaking Ethiopia's Abebe Bikila (1960, 1964) and Waldemar Cierpinski of Germany (1976, 1980).

It was in Paris in 2003 that the then 18-year-old made a thunderous international debut, snatching the 5,000m world championship gold ahead of favourites Hicham El Guerrouj and Kenenisa Bekele.

But Kipchoge's first big prize ended up being his only major gold on the track. It was on the road, which he turned to after failing to qualify for the 2012 London Games, that he would achieve glory.

With his long, metronomic stride, he has twice broken the marathon world record-streaking to 2hr 1min 39sec in 2018 and 2:01:09 in 2022. He is also the only man to have covered the 42.195km marathon distance in under two hours, albeit during an unofficial race in Vienna in 2019.