Sifan Hassan wins the women’s race, sets new course record

Kelvin Kiptum shattered the men’s marathon world record by a considerable margin on October 8, 2023, winning the year’s Chicago Marathon in two hours and 35 seconds.

This is the first time, the time to finish in a marathon has dipped below the two hours and one minute mark in a record-eligible race. The previous world record (2:01:09) was in the name of Kenyan legend Eliud Kipchoge, set at the 2022 Berlin Marathon.

On Sunday, Kiptum, also from Kenya, lowered that by 34 seconds, quite an accomplishment given the level of performance one is talking of at these timings. The new mark is subject to ratification by World Athletics. According to Runner’s World, Kiptum ran 1:00:48 for the first half of the race and 59:47 for the second half. In its report, World Athletics noted that Kiptum passed 40 kilometres in 1:54:23 – after a 27:52 ten kilometre-split – and sped up further to finish in 2:00:35.

As impressive as Kiptum’s margin of improvement in the world record, was his margin of victory from the rest of the elite field in Chicago. His compatriot Benson Kipruto, who finished second, was nearly three and a half minutes behind at 2:04:02. Bashir Abdi of Belgium (2:04:32) placed third. Kipruto was the defending champion, coming into the race.

In the women’s category, the winner was Sifan Hassan of Netherlands (2:13:44). Her timing, a new course record, was also the second fastest marathon by a woman, so far. She was followed to the finish line in Chicago by the defending champion, Kenya’s Ruth Chepngetich (2:15:37) and Ethiopia’s Megertu Alemu (2:17:09). Hassan is one of the most versatile and illustrious distance runners in her gender category. Her competence has spanned all the way from 1500m to the 10,000m on track (she has been the world champion and the Olympic champion in some of these disciplines) and the half marathon and marathon in road races.

Sunday’s race was only the third major marathon event, 23-year-old Kiptum had participated in. Prior to coming into the marathon, Wikipedia’s page on Kiptum shows him winning the Eldoret Half Marathon in Kenya in 2018, in 1:02:01. He was 18 years old then. He started participating internationally in the half marathon in 2019. He has a personal best of 58 minutes, 42 seconds in the discipline.

Kiptum made his debut in the marathon, at the 2022 Valencia Marathon, winning the race in 2:01:53. This was followed by his victory in the 2023 London Marathon, where he timed 2:01:25, just 16 seconds shy of Kipchoge’s erstwhile world record. That was in April. Less than six months later, in October, he had become the new world record holder in Chicago. Interestingly at both Valencia and London, his performance was noted for running a quicker second half of the race, something he repeated in Chicago.

“ A world record was not in my mind today… but I knew one day, one time I would be a world record holder,” Kiptum said at the finish line, adding that he is “very happy.’’ – NBC Chicago noted in its report on the record-breaking run. According to Runner’s World, Kiptum earns $ 100,000 for the victory plus $ 50,000 course record bonus.

While he may no longer be the world record holder, Eliud Kipchoge remains the first person in recorded history to have run a sub-two hour marathon. He did that in October 2019, touching 1:59:40.2 at the Ineos 1:59 Challenge held in Vienna. It wasn’t an open event and with standard competition rules for pacing and fluids not followed, the run did not count as a marathon record.

(The author, Shyam G Menon, is a freelance journalist based in Mumbai.)