Last updated on .From the section Athletics

Kipchoge won marathon gold at the 2016 Olympics in Rio

Kenya's Eliud Kipchoge smashed the marathon world record by clocking a time of two hours one minute 39 seconds in Berlin.

The 33-year-old took nearly one minute 20 seconds off the previous best, which was set by compatriot Dennis Kimetto when he ran 2:02:57 in Berlin in 2014.

"I lack words to describe this day," said Kipchoge. "I am really grateful, happy to smash the world record."

The women's race was won by Gladys Cherono of Kenya in 2:18:11.

Kipchoge won the London Marathon for a third time earlier this year and is the Olympic champion over the distance.

"It was hard," he said. "I ran my own race, I trusted my trainers, my programme and my coach. That's what pushed me in the last kilometres."

In 2017, Kipchoge missed out on becoming the first athlete to run under two hours for the marathon by 26 seconds.

The Kenyan clocked 2:00:25 but because pacemakers who could swap in and out of the run were used, the time was not recognised as a world record.

Two records in one day

France's Kevin Mayer celebrates setting a new Olympic decathlon record

The men's marathon record was not the only athletics record to fall on Sunday as France's Kevin Mayer set a new benchmark in the decathlon.

His world record of 9,126 points at the Decastar event in Talence, France, surpassed American Ashton Eaton's 9,045 total set at the 2015 World Championships.

"I've been waiting for this moment for a long time," said Mayer, 26, the world champion and an Olympic silver medallist in the discipline.

Mayer led from the outset and recorded the following results over the two-day competition: