Cathal Dennehy: There can only be one greatest of all time - will it be Kipchoge or Bekele

It’s about a battle for immortality and as Paris draws near, pitting two all-time greats against each other. 

THERE CAN ONLY BE ONE: Eliud Kipchoge and Kenenisa Bekele are two of the greatest who will be pitted against each other at the Olympics in Paris. 

It started in Paris, all of 21 years ago. It will finish in Paris, three months from now. When the Olympic men’s marathon reaches its denouement at Les Invalides on August 10, we may have an answer to a question athletics anoraks have debated for years: who’s the greatest distance runner of all time?

In the red corner, out of Kenya, is Eliud Kipchoge. The best marathoner in history, hands down. On paper, he’s 39, though it’s understood Kipchoge is actually a few years older, making his feats in recent years all the more remarkable. A two-time Olympic champion, the former world record holder, and the only man to have run a sub-two-hour marathon, even if he needed a few tweaks to the rule book to achieve that.