Chicago Marathon elite field may break Kipchoge world record

With Benson Kipruto who won last year in 2:04:24 and Kelvin Kiptum in, the London Marathon with 2:01:25, leading the men's elite field,  Eliud Kipchoge’s 2022 world record of 2:01: 08 may go into the athletics archives at the Chicago Marathon in October.

Four other men in the field have run faster than 2:05, including Bashir Abdi of Belgium, who ran 2:03:36 in Rotterdam in 2021 and won the Olympic bronze medal that year.

For the American men, Galen Rupp returns to Chicago, where he won in 2017 and was second in 2021 in 2:06:35. Rupp, who is 37, has struggled with injuries lately. He was 17th at the NYC Half in March, and last November, he dropped out of the New York City Marathon. His last marathon was at the World Championships in 2022 in Eugene, Oregon, where he finished 19th in 2:09:36.

Conner Mantz, who made his marathon debut in Chicago last fall, finishing seventh in 2:08:16, will aim to run faster than 2:08:10, which is the Olympic qualifying time. No American men have the automatic qualifying standard (by virtue of running faster than 2:08:10 or finishing in the top 5 at a platinum label marathon, which includes all six World Marathon Majors).

The Chicago Marathon seems the best chance for American men to hit the time in the U.S., while still leaving enough time to recover for the Olympic Trials in Orlando on February 3, 2024.

On the women’s side, three big names were already announced: Ruth Chepngetich of Kenya, who just missed the world record at Chicago last year; Emily Sisson, who set an American record (2:18:29) in finishing second in 2022, and Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands, who ran 2:18:33 to win the London Marathon in April in her debut.

Joining that trio are four other women who have broken 2:19 for the marathon.

The American women’s contingent brings some interesting names. Emma Bates will run, and she indicated in Boston, where she finished fifth, that she would be making a run at the American record this fall. A head-to-head matchup against Sisson should provide plenty of drama.

Aliphine Tuliamuk, the Olympic Marathon Trials champion in 2020, and the top American finisher in New York in 2022, will run in Chicago. Molly Seidel is set to run her first marathon since finishing fourth in New York in 2021. The Olympic bronze medalist has since battled injuries, an eating disorder, and low ferritin.