Story highlights Eliud Kipchoge does marathon in two hours and 24 seconds in Nike's Breaking2 project

Official marathon world record of 2:02:57 was set in 2014

(CNN) Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge came tantalizingly close to breaking one of the most coveted frontiers left in athletics, running a full marathon in two hours and 24 seconds Saturday.

Kipchoge, 32, joined fellow world-class runners Lelisa Desisa of Ethiopia and Zersenay Tadese of Eritrea in Nike's Breaking2 project, an attempt to cover the 26.2 miles (42.2 kilometers) of a marathon in under two hours. Guided by a platoon of pacing runners, the three started together, but Kipchoge -- the 2016 Olympic champion and the 2016 London Marathon winner -- came closest in the end.

The marathon was held at the Monza Formula 1 racetrack near Milan, Italy, a site chosen because it was built for speed. The effort came 63 years to the day since Roger Bannister became the first person to run a mile in under four minutes.

Nike launched its Breaking2 project in 2014, with Saturday's result culminating hours and hours of research, design and planning -- all devoted to maximizing human potential over the marathon.

"We believe that once a sub-two-hour marathon is done, the records will fall at traditional marathons after that," Brad Wilkins, director of NXT Generation Research in the Nike Sport Research Lab, told CNN ahead of the race. "People will run faster and faster, similar to when Roger Bannister broke the four-minute mile."

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