WORLD-CLASS athletes from all corners of the globe will be part of the INEOS 1:59 Challenge.
Lured by the aura that surrounds the world’s greatest marathon runner, this star-studded cast of pacemakers want to see him make history.
“The calibre of athletes, who are here just to pace is ridiculous,” said Brett Robinson, “so to be part of that is going to be something special.”
Among the athletes, who hail from Ethiopia, Uganda, America, Kenya, Norway, Australia and Switzerland, are marathon winners, world champions and US and European cross country stars.
They have broken records themselves at the world championships, the Commonwealth Games and the Olympics.
Australian Brett Robinson has won the Melbourne Half Marathon on three occasions and reached the final of the 5000m at the 2016 Olympics. He made his marathon debut in London this year, finishing in 2:10:55.
He will be joined by about 40 others, including five-times Olympian Bernard Lagat, the three famous Norwegian Ingebrigtsen brothers, Kenyan Augustine Choge, and Jack Rayner who won the 2018 Commonwealth Half Marathon title in Cardiff last year.
But in Vienna, their focus will be on Eliud.
They will be there to help set the pace (working in tandem with the timing car and laser).
They will be there to shield him – as much as possible – from the wind.
But perhaps their most important role is an intangible one: to be there for him on the day, running alongside him, offering him psychological and moral support as he attempts the seemingly impossible.