Story on Eliud Kipchoge’s Sub 2-Hour Marathon by Medical Xpress raises concerns on some claims made

Reviewed by: Sean Luke and Celina Tang

Average Score: 4 / 5

In Summary: The news story on Medical Xpress was posted prior to elite marathoner Eliud Kipchoge’s attempt at a sub 2-hour marathon, where the runner took the race under regulated conditions to try and surpass this feat. The author of the news story is also the author of the original research articles analyzing the chances of Kipchoge being able to achieve the goal. Some concerns arise, as some statements appear to be vague and non-scientific in nature.

Original News Story

Research Article

Image by: Maximillian Soltysiak

Sean Luke

             This article describes the extraordinary endeavour elite marathoner Eliud Kipchoge will attempt on October 12, 2019 (date has passed). Kipchoge will run a marathon under highly regulated conditions to optimize his performance. The question posed in this article asks if Kipchoge will be able to run under two hours for the marathon – a feat that has yet to be accomplished. Simon D Angus, the author of this article posits that under these highly regulated circumstances, Kipchoge will be able to run at least 15 seconds faster than his recent research article suggests and under two hours.

              Many of the claims made in this article come from the research of the author. For example, two journal articles from Angus are used to further his argument as to why Kipchoge will be able to run under 2 hours for the marathon. Additionally, Angus makes claims that are not based in evidence, which impacts the strength of his argument. Angus states that Kipchoge “clearly thrives on crowd energy”, which is vague and non-scientific. Most notably, the final remark notes that no quantitative value can be used to predict Kipchoge’s performance, rather, Angus’ “sense” suggests that he has already broken the barrier in his head. This encapsulates the vagueness and lack of ability to apply the scientific method to this case.

Celina Tang

           The Xpress article takes research found from statistically analyzing fifty years worth of world record marathon times to predict whether or not the marathon runner, Eliud Kipchoge, will have a time of less than two hours. The research indicated that there would be a ten percent chance of breaking the two-hour record and that it would happen May 2032, for the faster marathoners get, the longer it will take for them to improve even slightly. There is no definitive answer to whether the record will be broken, as the author implies that there are many other factors, time being a very large one.
 
             In regard to areas of weakness, the author of the article is also the author of the journal publication, ensuring that the research information and article content align, but it does introduce bias. The article only uses the original journal article as a source, thus providing no outside sources or perspectives. Furthermore, there is no information about the author of the article directly accessible, although this information can be found on the Medicine and Science of Sports and Exercise site, as that is where the original research is published. Moreover, there is an excessive amount of advertisements that take away from the overall quality and appearance of the article.

Index for Review

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