NAIROBI, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- Kenya's Olympic Marathon champion Eliud Kipchoge has ruled out pushing for a new world record on the London course in April.
Kipchoge, whose attempt to break the world record in Berlin in September failed by a mere 43 seconds mainly due to bad weather, will however seek to clinch a hat-trick of titles in London having won in the English capital in 2015 and 2016.
"Forget about the world record," Kipchoge told Xinhua on Thursday in Eldoret. "I will not be going for the world record but I intend to run fast race. Should the world record fall in pace then be it, but I am not focused on it at the moment."
He ran 2:03:05 in 2016 in London, the course record, to make himself the second fastest marathon runner and was just eight seconds shy of the world record set by compatriot Dennis Kimetto (2:02:57) in Berlin in 2014.
Ethiopia's Kenenisa Bekele, who ran 2:03:03 in 2016 in Berlin, will be running in London on April 22 together with defending champion Daniel Wanjiru, two-time world marathon champion Abel Kirui, Mo Farah and Stanley Biwott.
"I know to complete the marathon cycle, I need to run a world record time. Soon it will come," he added.
Kipchoge has won all but one race since he moved to the marathon. He won on his debut in Hamburg clocking 2:05:30 in 2013.
In addition to the Olympics, he has victories at London twice, Chicago, and Berlin twice. He also won in Monza Italy in 2:00.25.
The time is two and a half minutes faster than the official world record of 2:02:57. However, it doesn't count as the world record because the event didn't follow two standard competition rules.
