Kelvin Kiptum of Kenya celebrates his Chicago Marathon world record victory in Chicago’s Grant Park on Sunday, Oct. 8, 2023. (Eileen T. Meslar /Chicago Tribune via AP)
CHICAGO — Kelvin Kiptum set a world record in the Chicago Marathon on Sunday, finishing in 2 hours, 35 seconds to shatter fellow Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge’s old mark by 34 seconds.
Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands also took advantage of cool and cloudy weather that’s considered ideal for a marathon to win the women’s race in 2:13:44 — the second-fastest ever for a woman at the 26.2-mile distance.
Kiptum won the London Marathon in the spring in 2:01:25 and shaved almost a minute off the world record set last year in Berlin by Kipchoge, a two-time Olympic champion and the most successful marathoner ever.
Kelvin Kiptum celebrates his Chicago Marathon world record victory in Chicago’s Grant Park on Sunday, Oct. 8, 2023. (Eileen T. Meslar /Chicago Tribune via AP)
“I knew I was coming for a course record, but a world record — I am so happy,” Kiptum said. “A world record was not on my mind today, but I knew one day I would be a world record-holder.”
Kipchoge also broke the 2-hour mark in 2019 in a specially designed Vienna exhibition that does not qualify for the world record.
Hassan’s time is second behind the women’s world record of 2:11:53 set last month in Berlin by Tigist Assefa of Ethiopia. Assefa shattered the women’s world record by more than two minutes.
More than 47,000 runners took part in Sunday’s event.