Sunday, October 13, 2024, 8:20 p.m.
Historic day for the marathon. The Kenyan Ruth Chepngetich broke the world record of 42,195 meters in Chicago this Sunday with a time of two hours, 9 minutes and 56 seconds, a stratospheric mark that improved by almost two minutes on the previous one, recorded by the Ethiopian Tigist Assefa ( 2:11.53) in September 2023 in Berlin. Chepngetich’s feat had a second symbolic value. Just a year earlier, in the same streets of the city overlooking Lake Michigan, his compatriot Kelvin Kiptum, who died in February in a traffic accident, also broke the world record (2:00.35).
Kenya achieved the double in one of the most important events of the year with the victory of John Korir, who stopped the clock at 2:02.43. “The world record has returned to Kenya and I dedicate it to Kelvin Kiptum,” Chepngetich launched. «I am very proud of myself. I had this world record in mind, it was my dream and today everything was perfect: the weather and my preparation,” added the world champion in Doha 2019.
In the absence of Olympic champion Sifan Hassan, Chepngetich deployed a bold strategy to run at a pace never seen before in a women’s marathon. She completed the first five kilometers in 15 minutes and, without any rival in the rearview mirror, she crossed the halfway point of the race in 1:04.16, a time that projected her to go below 2:09.00. Motivated by the memory of 2022, when she missed the world record by just 14 seconds, she stood firm until she was the first woman to break the symbolic mark of 2 hours and 10 minutes. In second place came Ethiopian Sutume Kebede (2:17.32) and Kenyan Irine Cheptai (2:17.52) came in third.
