Ruth Chepngetich has become the first woman to run a marathon in under 2 hours and 10 minutes, breaking the previous world record by almost two minutes in one of the most extraordinary distance performances ever.
The 30-year-old Kenyan immediately dedicated the victory to her compatriot Kelvin Kiptum, who exactly a year ago became the first man to clock under 2 hours and 1 minute in the same race before dying in a car accident in February.
The 2:10 mark was long considered unbreakable for a woman – and her finishing time of 2:09:56 is more than five minutes faster than Paula Radcliffe’s 2003 world record, which stood for 16 years.
It has also only ever been surpassed by 22 British men.
This was Chepngetich’s third victory in the Chicago Marathon and such was her dominance: she finished almost eight minutes ahead of Ethiopia’s Sutume Kebede and broke her personal best by almost five minutes.
“It’s a time we can’t really fathom – a time we never thought was possible,” said Britain’s Jo Pavey, the former European 10,000m champion, commenting on the race for Eurosport.
Like Kiptum, Chepngetich also wore the Nike Alphafly 3 ‘super shoe’ in her attempt to surpass the world record of 2:11:53 set by Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa in Berlin last year wearing a pair of £400 Adidas Pro Evo 1. Assefa’s victory led to a new phase in the battle for the carbon-covered road trainers that transformed long-distance running, but Nike now holds both world records again. The Alphafly 3s – with their air bubbles and ZoomX foam – went on general sale earlier this year for £284.99.
“I dedicate this world record to Kelvin Kiptum,” said Chepngetich. “I’m so happy. I don’t know how to explain it. The world record is my dream, which has now come true. I fought a lot thinking about the world record and now I achieved it. I am so grateful. This year the weather was perfect and I prepared well. The world record was on my mind.”
Another Kenyan, John Korir, won Sunday’s men’s race in 2:02:43, setting the sixth-fastest marathon time in history.
Kiptum ran a time of 2:00:35 and set the men’s world record last year. Eliud Kipchoge, the previous men’s world record holder, famously ran a race under two hours in Vienna in 2019, but that does not count as an official time.
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