Hours, Days, and weeks are fast-rolling towards the London marathon slated for 4th October. Excitement among the fans and athletics enthusiasts has already boiled to a crescendo.

Kenenisa Bekele plays an integral role in the London marathon; he adds recipe needed in a star-studded field. Kipchoge and Bekele are the only athletes with sub 2:02:00 in the marathon. The absence of the latter would have therefore render London marathon a one-horse race.

The million-dollar question is, who will triumph between marathon world record holder Eliud Kipchoge and the second-fastest man Kenenisa Bekele?

The duo has met four times and in all cases, Kipchoge has emerged the winner. But what is raising eyebrows at the moment is their two-seconds difference in their personal best.

To beat Kipchoge, the three-times Olympic gold medallist needs to burn the midnight oil, especially in relation to tactics. Tactics are relative given that he has missed the world record twice in what many believe he was capable of obliterating.

One mistake that Bekele needs to avoid is dropping from the leading group. I will use two cases in the BMW Berlin marathon as a reference.

In 2016 during the 43rd edition of Berlin Marathon, the Ethiopian maestro missed the world record by six seconds, it will, however, be remembered that he had dropped midway before chasing the leading group again. He passed Wilson Kipsang in the final stages of the race to ran massive 2:03.03.

while running at Berlin marathon last year again, he had to drop leaving his compatriots Birhanu Legesse and Sisay Lemma to take control of the race, before surpassing them. Nonetheless, he won that day and missing the record by two seconds.

Therefore in the long and short Kenenisa Bekele should not make a grievous mistake to drop in a race commanded by Eliud kipchoge. He should face him head-on.

May the BEST winner win.