After Kenyan Olympic champion Eliud Kipchoge achieved the previously unthinkable feat of breaking the two-hour barrier in Vienna on Saturday, AFP looks back at other marathon milestones. Seventeen runners took part in the first Olympic marathon at the inaugural Games in 1896, starting in Marathon and ending in the Olympic stadium in Athens, a distance of just under 40km - a little short of today's standard 42.195-kilometres (26 miles 385 yards). Fired by anger and a desire to show that women could run the distance, Switzer completed the race in 4hrs 20mins. The Boston marathon was officially opened to women in 1972 and in 1984 women ran the Olympic marathon for the first time. Switzer won the New York marathon in 1974 and in 2017, at the age of 70, she returned to Boston.

Source: Daily Nation October 12, 2019 09:22 UTC