Kenyan sets world marathon record in Chicago

Kelvin Kiptum, a 23-year-old Kenyan, is the new world record holder in the marathon. Kiptum brought the two-hour barrier closer with a time of 2:00:35 to win the Chicago Marathon yesterday.

“I feel so happy. A world record was not in my mind today,” he said after beating Eliud Kipchoge’s time of 2:01.09, set in Berlin in September 2022.

At the finish, Kiptum was three minutes 27 seconds clear of countryman Benson Kipruto, with Belgian Bashir Abdi in third.

“I saw the time in front of me. I felt good inside of me, maybe a little adrenaline. I said let me try - maybe I can run under 2:00,” he said. “I knew one day I would be a world-record holder.”

Dutch runner Sifan Hassan set the second-fastest women’s time in marathon history as she won the female event.

Her time of 2:13:44 is behind only the record of 2:11.53 set by Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa in Berlin last month.

Hassan won the London Marathon in April and did three events at the World Athletics Championships, hosted in Budapest, Hungary.

Chicago follows a series of fine performances the previous week at the Asian Games, in Hangzhou, China. Budapest javelin champion Neeraj Chopra topped the billing with a season’s best 88.88 metres to lead an India one-two, with Kishore Jena, who was fifth in Budapest, scoring a personal best 87.54.

Budapest 3000-metre steeplechase winner Winifred Javi won her pet event and took the 1500m as well.

Three 2022 World Champions were also victorious in Hangzhou. Mutaz Essa Barshim, Wang Jianan, and Feng Bin won the men’s high jump, the men’s long jump and the women’s discus to remind fans of their 2022 heroics.