Near-World Record Earns Readers' and Editors' Choice Awards

Track and field fans voiced their choices in this week's DyeStat's Performance of the Week poll, while DyeStat's editors made their own selection.

Readers’ Choice: Kenenisa Bekele

With 44.59 percent of the vote, Kenenisa Bekele won our Readers’ Choice vote, beating Leo Daschbach with his second-place tally of 20.98 percent.

Bekele won the BMW Berlin Marathon Sunday, running 2:01:41. That is two seconds off Eliud Kipchoge's world record set in Berlin last year.

The near record surprised many, as Bekele has struggled in the three years since he ran 2:03:03 to win the 2016 Berlin Marathon. He had finished two marathons in that time and most recently withdrew from the Tokyo Marathon due to a stress fracture.

Similar to his 2016 Berlin race, Bekele dropped off the lead pack in the second half of the race, only to storm back to take the victory in the second-fastest marathon race ever run.

Editors’ Choice: Kenenisa Bekele

With the first weekend of the IAAF World Outdoor Championships taking place, as well as being in the middle of the high school cross country season, there were a lot of great performances this week. However, few can truly compare to Bekele's near-world record.

A year ago, Kipchoge appeared head-and-shoulders above every other marathoner in the world. His 2:01:39 took more than a minute off the previous record of 2:02:57.

Now, Kipchoge is not alone at the top. Bekele has shown he too can run under 2:02.

If there was any question about the goals of the top runners in Berlin this year, the first 10 kilometers made it clear. The lead runners passed 10K in 28:58, three seconds faster than Kipchoge was a year ago.

That hot pace continued through halfway, reaching the half marathon in 1:01:05. That was a second faster than the half marathon split of Kipchoge.

The lead pack of three was blown apart when Ethiopia's Birhanu Legese launched a ferocious surge that included a 2:48 kilometer split around the 28K mark.

Bekele found himself down on the leader, but he fought back, slowly increasing his tempo. After Legese's lead grew to 13 seconds at 35K, Bekele took the lead at 38K.

Reaching the 40K mark in 1:55:30, Bekele was 11 seconds down on Kipchoge's record performance. However, Bekele continued to push, grimacing as his head rocked side-to-side. The effort paid off as Bekele closed on Kipchoge's mark, following two seconds short in the end.

There is no guarantee we will see another similar performance out of Bekele again. His injury troubles could easily return. However, for the time being and with Bekele falling just short of the world record, the marathon just got a lot more interesting.