Three months ago, Kenyan Wilson Kipsang broke the world record and sent the marathon world into a tizzy.
Now, Emmanuel Kipchirchur Mutai, the fourth fastest man in the world’s all-time marathon list, feels that he has it in him to break his compatriot’s world record.
“When you are competing, if you focus on what you want to achieve, sometimes you lose your touch,” Mutai, who is just 29 seconds away from Kipsang’s world record of 2:03.23 secs, told The Hindu at the Dream Hotel here on Friday.
“Because, when you’re preparing for the world record, you may be under a lot of pressure and you will not be able to meet your expectation.
“But, if you do things without focusing on anything, that’s the time it could come.
“You have to be confident like I think Wilson was when he broke the world record in Berlin.”
Mutai, who is here for Sunday’s Muthoot Finance first Cochin International half marathon, feels that Berlin is the ideal place to break the world record.
“Berlin is a very flat course and always the weather is good, it doesn’t keep changing during the race…it’s steady weather,” said the 29-year-old who has a personal best of 2:03.52 while finishing second in the Chicago Marathon in October.
“In other places, when you start the race it’s 10 degrees and then it goes higher. After Berlin, Chicago is good but sometimes the weather is not predictable.”
Mutai, a former London Marathon winner, feels he would have run a lot faster than his personal best had he run in Berlin.
“I think if I was in Berlin, I would have run faster than what I ran in Chicago.”
He hopes to break his personal best in the Cochin Half Marathon.
