By Tony Kipkorir
Kenya’s Ruth Chepngetich set a new women’s marathon world record at the 2024 Chicago Marathon held on Sunday 13 October in the United States.
This is after a sensational race that saw her cross the finish line in 2:09.56, smashing the previous world record of 2:11.53 set by Ethiopia’s Tigist Assefa at the 2023 Berlin Marathon.
Aside from smashing the world record, Chepngetich also made further headlines as she made history by becoming the first woman to run a sub 2:10.00 marathon.
The mother of one also notched up her third Chicago Marathon victory and chopped more than four minutes off her previous best of 2:14:18, set when winning the Chicago Marathon in 2022.
Chepngetich’s intent was clear from the start. She breezed through the first 5km in 15:00 and had Ethiopia’s Sutume Asefa Kebede for company, and then reached 10km in an astonishing 30:14 with Kebede still just two seconds behind.
Chepngetich continued her relentless pace and hit the half-way mark in an incredible 1:04:16, the fifth-fastest clocking in history for the half marathon distance and putting her on course for a sub-2:09 finish.
Kebede had started to drop behind, but she was still operating well inside world record pace, reaching the half-way point in 1:04:30, three minutes ahead of Joyciline Jepkosgei.
The gap between Chepngetich and Kebede continued to grow throughout the second half. The pace of both women dropped, Kebede’s more so than Chepngetic, and by 30km (1:31:49) the Kenyan had a lead of almost two minutes over her Ethiopian rival.
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Chepngetich’s next 10km was covered in 31:22, which was her slowest of the race so far, but still remarkably quick and enough to increase her leading margin to more than six minutes. With little more than two kilometres left to run, she was still well inside world record pace, the likelihood of breaking it increasing with every step.
Spurred on by her memories of the 2022 race, when she missed out on the world record by just 14 seconds, Chepngetich powered through the final stages and crossed the line in 2:09:57, becoming the first woman to break 2:10. Remarkably, only nine athletes went quicker in the men’s race today.
Kebede held on for second place in 2:17:32 while Kenya’s Irine Cheptai came through for third place in 2:17:52.
Chepngetich is set to pocket a mouthwatering prize money of $100,000 (approximately Ksh 12,882,780) for winning the race.
Ruth Chepngetich
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In addition, she will pocket a bonus of $50,000 (approximately Ksh 6, 441, 390) for setting a new world record.
The race was also a special one for Kenya since a moment of silence of was held in honor of the late Kelvin Kiptum, who perished in a road accident earlier this year.
Moreover, participants were provided with commemorative stickers to attach to their running bibs before the start of the race.
Prior to his demise, Kiptum had set the current men’s world record of 2:00.35 in the streets of Chicago in the 2023 edition.
The athlete who left behind two children, also had plans to run a sub-two hour marathon in April 2023 in the Dutch city of Rotterdam.
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