(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.Eliud Kipchoge does marathon in two hours and 24 seconds in Nike's Breaking2 projectOfficial marathon world record of 2:02:57 was set in 2014
Among other factors, _ chose the three runners Saturday on three key measurements: running economy, velocity and VO2 -- the maximum amount of oxygen their body can utilize during intense exercise.