When the early morning light breaks over Batman Avenue on Sunday Morning, Eliud Kipchoge—widely revered as the greatest marathoner of all time -- will step onto the starting grid of the Nike Melbourne Marathon Festival.
At 41, the two-time Olympic champion is no longer chasing records or podium finishes; instead, his historic seven-continent world tour arrives in Australia for a larger mission: planting trees, opening libraries, and uniting communities through the power of the stride.
After the first two chapters in Cape Town, South Africa, and Porto Alegre, Brazil, Kipchoge is now travelling to Australia to continue his mission of racing marathons on all seven continents and inspiring communities through running.
“It is very special for me to return to Australia, especially after the warm welcome I received last year. Experiencing a new city and a new race is very exciting,” said Kipchoge.
“I am humbled by the support we continue to receive around the world on this tour. It also feels great to meet fellow runners and hear their powerful stories. Melbourne will be a fantastic next stop because it hosts so many sporting events, such as Formula 1, cricket and the Australian Open. I'm proud to set foot in these historic streets,” he said in a statement.
This will be his second time racing in Australia in just over a year, and he has fond memories of the country after competing in the inaugural TCS Sydney Marathon in 2025, the seventh Abbott World Marathon Major, where he finished ninth in 2:08:31 on a challenging, hilly course. However, he said that the enthusiasm of the spectators had solidified his desire to return.
Eliud Kipchoge after completing the Sydney Marathon in Australia on August 31, 2025.
Photo credit: Reuters
Melbourne is different, with a faster, flatter and more iconic course. The 2026 course has been redesigned to run in the opposite direction towards Beach Road. It cuts 20 per cent of elevation and 30 per cent of turns and passes Flinders Street Station, the Albert Park Lake Formula 1 track and the St Kilda foreshore. It will finish inside the Melbourne Cricket Ground, which hosted the 1956 Olympics.
The men's course record of 2:09:12 was set by Timothy Ronoh of Kenya in 2022. Kipchoge enters the race with a personal best of 2:01:09, but for him, times are no longer the point; he wants to inspire the world to embrace running.
He started out as a 5000m world champion at the age of 18 in Paris in 2003, beating Hicham El Guerrouj and Kenenisa Bekele. He won an Olympic bronze medal in Athens in 2004 and a silver medal in Beijing in 2008.
He then switched to road running, and what followed was unparalleled. He made his debut at the Hamburg Marathon in 2013, winning the race in 2:05:30, and found a new home in running.
Since then, he has won 11 Abbott World Marathon Majors, having won the Berlin Marathon five times, the London Marathon four times, and once each in Chicago and Tokyo.
Kipchoge is also a two-time Olympic marathon champion, having won in Rio in 2016 and defended his title in Tokyo in 2020.
He made history by breaking the official world record, clocking 2:01:39 at the 2018 Berlin Marathon, smashing Dennis Kimetto's record by 1:18, and then lowering it again to 2:01:09 at the 2022 Berlin Marathon.
Kenya's Eliud Kipchoge smiles after crossing the finish line to win the men's race of the Berlin Marathon on September 24, 2023 in Berlin, Germany.
Photo credit: Tobias Schwarz | AFP
This record was later broken by Kelvin Kiptum, who ran 2:00:35 in Chicago in 2023, and is currently held by Sebastian Sawe, who ran 1:59:30 in London in April this year.
The marathon tour that he is participating in raises money for the Eliud Kipchoge Foundation's educational and environmental initiatives, which are also his passions alongside running and farming.
Kipchoge started the tour with the Cape Town Marathon in South Africa on May 24, finishing 16th in 2:13:29. Ethiopia's Mohamed Esa won the race in a course-record time of 2:04:55, the fastest ever on African soil.
On July 12, he stopped in Porto Alegre, Brazil, where he finished in 12th place in 2:18:39 in a race won by Zineddine Ouria of Morocco in 2:08:52.
He reached the halfway point in 1:05:07. Afterwards, he said: "What an incredible honour it was to race in your streets with all of you today. Your cheers lifted not only me, but all the other runners too."
This time, his wife Grace Sugut is also running, having gone from supporting a legend to becoming a marathoner herself. She has run in Cape Town, Porto Alegre, and now Melbourne.
Even as he competes on Sunday, he still has four more stops to make, including in North America, Asia, Europe, and Antarctica, the locations of which are yet to be announced. His goal is not to reach the podium, but to plant trees, open libraries, and prove what he has always said in Kaptagat: "Running brings people together across all borders".
