Eliud Kipchoge captures imaginations and viewing figures as he runs marathon in under two hours
Event broadcast live to over 200 territories from 49 broadcasters with a live reach of over 500m
Eliud Kipchoge celebrates as he crosses finish line of the At the INEOS 1:59 Challenge, Vienna, Austria on 12 October 2019, and makes history to become the first human being to run a marathon in under two hours
Eliud Kipchoge is now hailed officially as the greatest marathon runner of all time after he made history on Saturday 12 October as the first person to run a sub-two-hour marathon, in the remarkable time of 1:59:40.2.
Altogether, 49 broadcasters aired the INEOS 1:59 Challenge live in over 200 territories, with an estimated reach of over 500 million viewers.
Kipchoge’s incredible achievement proved his own mantra that ‘No Human is Limited’. The record run places him alongside other sporting greats such as Sir Roger Bannister who ran the first sub-four-minute mile in 1954, and Usain Bolt who’s 100-metre world record of 9.58 seconds has stood since 2009, in capturing the attention of the world.
Footage and content from the event, which was produced and distributed by the British independent TV sports production and media company, Sunset+Vine, as well as images from the event which were captured by a team of photographers including Bob Martin and Dan Vernon, have been shared and seen across the world.
The YouTube live stream of the run reached a peak of 779,000 concurrent viewers as Kipchoge crossed the finish line just before 10:15am CEST. The YouTube stream of the live run has now had 4.9 million views to date (as of 14 October).
Eliud Kipchoge celebrates breaking the two hour barrier for a marathon distance with supporters and his team on the Hauptallee, at the At the INEOS 1:59 Challenge, Vienna, Austria on 12 October 2019
Across INEOS 1:59 and Kipchoge’s social media channels there were a combined 39.8 million video views and 2.6 million engagements on Saturday 12 October. As the event came to a conclusion, five out of seven top trending topics worldwide on Twitter were about the INEOS 1:59 Challenge, including #INEOS159 and #NoHumanIsLimited.
Local Vienna police estimate 120,000 fans came to cheer on Kipchoge and help him make history in the Prater.
News of the INEOS 1:59 Challenge has been covered 9,344 times by 1,081 TV channels in 296 markets across the world (as of 11:00am BST on 14 October). Between 1 October to 13 October there have been 9,789 online press articles published covering the INEOS 1:59 Challenge, with a cumulative potential readership of 2.2 billion.
At the INEOS 1:59 Challenge, Vienna, Austria on 12 October 2019, Eliud Kipchoge [white vest] running with his pacemaking team behind the official car and lasers on the Hauptallee
“The initial numbers coming from this weekend’s coverage are simply astounding and there is no sign that the coverage is slowing down. It will take a long time for the impact of this event to fully sink in but Kipchoge said in his post-event press conference that, “sport can unify people, I wanted to sell the message to the world that no human is limited,” and we are delighted that every piece of evidence points to the fact that Kipchoge has successfully achieved his goal.”