• Kipchoge became the first person to run a marathon in under two hours in October.
Image: COURTESY
Marathon runner Eliud Kipchoge has been voted BBC Sports Personality's World Sport Star of the Year.
Kipchoge became the first person to run a marathon in under two hours in October.
The Kenyan, 35, completed 26.2 miles (42.2km) in one hour 59 minutes 40 seconds in the Ineos 1:59 Challenge in Vienna, Austria.
Six months before his feat, Kipchoge won the London Marathon for a fourth time.
Kipchoge, who won Olympic gold at Rio 2016, broke his own London Marathon record - set in 2016 - by 28 seconds.
Topping an online public vote, the legendary marathon runner beat off competition from American gymnast Simone Biles, South Africa's Rugby World Cup-winning captain Siya Kolisi, Australian cricketer Steve Smith, American golfer Tiger Woods and USA footballer Megan Rapinoe, who co-led her team to World Cup victory again this summer.
Last year's winner was Italian golfer Francesco Molinari, who won the 2018 Open Championship and all five of his Ryder Cup matches at the event in Paris.
Kipchoge will return to racing for the first time since his historic sub-two hour marathon in April's London Marathon.
Kipchoge, 35, will be bidding to become the first athlete to win the elite men's race five times on 26 April.
"I love running in London where the crowd support is always wonderful," he said.
The world record holder has won on all four of his previous visits to London, setting a course record this year.
His ground-breaking time of one hour 59 minutes 40 seconds in Austria in October was the first time a human had covered the marathon distance in less than two hours.
However, it is not classed as a world record because various aspects of the specially designed challenge - such as rotating pacemakers and bike-delivered drinks - ruled his time ineligible.