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Eliud Kipchoge, Olympic marathon champ: ‘I wanted to run in a polluted city’

Eliud Kipchoge‘s choice of venue for his first race since winning the Olympic marathon may have surprised some.

New Delhi, India.

Kipchoge won a half marathon in the Indian capital in 59 minutes, 44 seconds, on Sunday. Then he explained why he ran in a city with air pollution chronicled by worldwide media this month as exponentially higher than permissible limits in some areas.

“I wanted to run in a city that is polluted and show people that there is no need to worry,” Kipchoge said, according to the English-language Indian Express newspaper.