Eliud Kipchoge’s world marathon record of 2hr 01min 09sec, set in Berlin on September 25 last year, has been ratified by World Athletics ©Getty Images

Eliud Kipchoge’s world marathon record of 2 hours 01min 09sec, set in Berlin on September 25 last year, has been ratified by World Athletics.

The performance by Kenya’s 38-year-old double Olympic champion took 30 seconds off the previous mark he had set in the same city on September 16 2018.

The sport’s international governing body has also ratified the world under-20 records set last year by Botswana’s 100 metres sprinter Letsile Tebogo, who clocked 9.91sec, and the Jamaican women’s 4x100m team, who ran 42.59, with both performances coming at the World Athletics U20 Championships Cali 22.

Kipchoge reached the halfway point in Berlin in 59min 50sec - identical to his half-way split when he produced a sub-two-hour run in an unofficial orchestrated race in Vienna three years ago.

His pace started to drop slightly from then on, but he was still comfortably inside world record pace and recorded the eighth consecutive men’s marathon world record to be set in Berlin.

"I am overjoyed to have broken the world record," said Kipchoge, speaking just after the race.

"I wanted to run the first half so fast.

“After 38km I knew I would be capable of breaking the world record.”

Letsile Tebogo of Botswana, pictured running at last year's World Athletics Championships in Eugene, has had his world under-20 100m record of 9.91 ratified ©Getty Images
Letsile Tebogo of Botswana, pictured running at last year's World Athletics Championships in Eugene, has had his world under-20 100m record of 9.91 ratified ©Getty Images

Tebogo’s record came as he made a successful defence of his 100m title in Cali.

He had broken the championship record in his heat with 10.00, then won his semi-final in 10.14 before winning the final in 9.91 (0.8m/s).

His winning time took 0.03 off the world under-20 record he had set in Eugene on July 15 in the heats of the World Athletics Championships Oregon22.

"When the gun went off, I had to make sure I made the best start of my life - and it was the best start of my life," Tebogo told World Athletics.

"As soon as I took my first step, I knew the title was mine.

"I didn’t worry about the time - I didn’t look."

Just three days later another world under-20 record fell at the Championships as the Jamaican quartet of Serena Cole, Tina Clayton, Kerrica Hill and Tia Clayton won the women’s 4x100m title in 42.59.

That took 0.35 off the previous record that the same quartet had achieved on August 22, 2021 at the previous World U20 Championships in Nairobi.

A similar quartet - but with Brianna Lyston on the third leg instead of Hill - had clocked a marginally quicker 42.58 at the CARIFTA Games earlier in 2022, but that time could not be ratified as a record.