Kiptum breaks Kipchoge’s World Record in marathon at Chicago Marathon

Kenyan Kelvin Kiptum broke the marathon world record to win the Chicago Marathon in 2 hours and 35 seconds, nearly breaking the two-hour barrier.

Dutchwoman Sifan Hassan ran the second-fastest women’s time in history — 2:13:44 — to win the women’s race.

Kiptum, listed at 23 years old, broke countryman Eliud Kipchoge’s world record of 2:01:09 set at the 2022 Berlin Marathon.

“A world record was not in my mind today,” Kiptum said on NBC Chicago. “But I knew one day, one time I will be a world record holder.”

Kiptum has run three career marathons — all in the last 10 months — and posted three of the six fastest times in history — 2:01:53 in Valencia, Spain, last December, followed by 2:01:25 in London in April.

 He has supplanted the 38-year-old Kipchoge as the world’s best marathoner. Kipchoge, who held that distinction for most of the last decade, bids next year to become the first person to win three Olympic marathons.

Kipchoge is the only person known to have run 26.2 miles in under two hours, but it was not done in a record-eligible race. In 2019, he ran 1:59:40.2 in a special event in Vienna, Austria.

Recent advances in shoe technology coincided with the men’s and women’s marathon world records being broken multiple times in the last four years.

Conner Mantz was the top American man in sixth place in a personal best 2:07:47, improving on his U.S.-leading time since the start of 2022. Mantz is the clear favorite for the February 3, Olympic Trials, where the top three are likely making the team for Paris.

Mantz was followed 13 seconds later by training partner Clayton Young, who lowered his personal best by 3:51 to become the second-fastest U.S. marathoner since the start of 2022.

 Galen Rupp, a two-time Olympic medalist, clocked 2:08:48 in his first completed marathon in two years coming off injuries. Rupp, 37, answered any questions about whether he is a bona fide Olympic trials contender.

Hassan added to her legend with a second win in as many marathons with a time only bettered in history by Ethiopian Tigst Assefa’s world record 2:11:53 from two weeks ago.

At the Tokyo Olympics, Hassan became the first woman to win medals in the 1500m (bronze), 5000m (gold) and 10,000m (gold) at the same Games.

Six weeks ago, she again ran the 1500m, 5000m,

and 10,000m at the world championships, adding silver and a bronze.

“I don’t know if six weeks is enough [to recover for the marathon],” she said. “I just love the pain.”

Emily Sisson was the top American woman in seventh in 2:22:09, a year after lowering the American record to 2:18:29 in a runner-up finish in Chicago. Sisson goes into the Olympic Trials as the clear favorite.

 Olympic bronze medalist Molly Seidel was the second American, 58 seconds behind Sisson, to re-establish herself in her first completed marathon in nearly two years.

Swiss Catherine Debrunner and Marcel Hug won the women’s and men’s wheelchair races in course record times.