Kelvin Kiptum runs new world record in Chicago

He broke Eliud Kipchoge’s previous record, itself set only a year ago, by 34 seconds and edged closer to the first sub 2-hour time run in open competition.

Kiptum had run 2:01:25 only four months previously in the London Marathon and improved on that by 50 seconds on Chicago’s flatter course. He finished nearly 3.5 minutes ahead of the second finisher, Benson Kipruto.

In the women’s race Sifan Hassan of Netherlands ran 2:13:44 – the second fastest women’s time ever recorded, following the new world record of 2:11:53 run in Berlin by Ethiopia’s Tigist Assefa only two weeks earlier.