Eliud Kipchoge narrowly misses out in sub two-hour marathon attempt

Reigning Olympic champion Eliud Kipchoge narrowly failed in his attempt to complete the marathon under two hours on Saturday, finishing in a time of 2hr 00min 24sec.

The 32-year-old Kenyan's time, set on the Monza Formula 1 track, smashed the official mark of 2:02.57 set by fellow Kenyan Dennis Kimetto in Berlin in 2014, but will not enter the record books largely due to a non-compliant system of pacemakers entering mid-race and drinks being given to runners via mopeds.

Eritrean half-marathon world-record holder Zersenay Tadese and Ethiopian two-time Boston Marathon winner Lelisa Desisa, the other two runners in the race, both dropped off the pace and were out of the running by the halfway mark.

Backed by a small army of scientists and helped by an ever-changing battalion of pacesetters, Kipchoge set a ferocious pace of 4min 34sec per mile, seven seconds quicker than the pace of Kimetto's existing world record.

Kipchoge started in promising fashion and was clocked at five seconds under the target time after 10 then 15 km, and was still two seconds inside the target at the 25 km mark.

But over the remaining third of the race, which began at 5.45am local time in slightly humid conditions, Kipchoge steadily began to fall behind pace.

He was clocked at over six seconds over the required pace at the 35km mark and, over the remaining kilometres, began to steadily trail his pacesetters before finishing just 25 seconds over the target.

Kipchoge's attempt comes 63 years to the day that Great Britain's Roger Bannister became the first person to break the four-minute mile, setting a time of 3min 59.4sec with pacemakers in Oxford on May 6 1954.