The world half-marathon record-holder was on world record pace for the first 30km of the race but slowed up in the latter stages.
Jacob Kiplimo, in just his second ever competitive run over 26.2 miles, dominated the men’s race to win the Chicago Marathon.
The 24-year-old Ugandan clocked 2:02:23 for his victory, a mark which puts him seventh on the marathon all-time list.
Kiplimo is the world half-marathon record-holder – he ran 56:42 in Barcelona back in February – and today he was part of a leading pack of four that went through half-way in a blistering 60:16 (target was 60:30).
To put that into perspective, the projected time at 13.1 miles was 2:00:31, four seconds under Kelvin Kiptum’s world record of 2:00:35 from Chicago two years ago.
Amongst the leading pack at half-way was reigning champion John Korir and, as the elite men passed through 30km, the pre-race narrative of a head-to-head between Kiplimo and Korir started to unfold.
By the 25km mark the duo had established a 10-second gap to the rest of the field and went through in 71:12, with the projected time forecast down to 2:00:10.
It was at that point that Kiplimo surged to put distance between himself and Korir. The Ugandan had finished second to Sabastian Sawe in his debut marathon in London back in April and was keen to go one better in Chicago.
Still under world record pace, he went through 30km and 35km in 1:25:31 and 1:39:53 respectively. With Korir dropping out around the 21-mile mark, Kiplimo was now over a minute ahead to the rest of the field and, now alone, started to slow down.
It was at the 23rd mile that Kiplimo fell behind world record pace – his projected time at this stage was 2:00:47 – and from then on in it was just about securing the victory and bettering his time of 2:03:37 from London.
“I’m so happy to take the win in Chicago and this is a big achievement for me today,” Kiplimo said. “I knew that the guys were pushing a little too fast so it was tough to maintain that pace. I just wanted to run my personal best today and maybe run around 2:02. This is only my second marathon and I know I will improve on this one.”
A lot of the talk before Chicago centred on whether Conner Mantz could break Khalid Khannouchi’s 23-year-old US marathon record of 2:05:38 from London. That seemed likely given Mantz ran 2:05:08 at the Boston Marathon earlier this year [Boston is not a record-eligible course, primarily its point-to-point nature and significant net downhill elevation drop].
With a 4:45 mile average, Mantz demolished that mark in Chicago, placing fourth overall in 2:04:43.
“That was a great feeling,” Mantz said. “Those last few miles were really tough. Even with 10 miles to go I was working out what pace I needed to break the US record. Fortunately, I got to work with Alex Masai [finished third in 2:04:37] and we worked together. It was a great feeling to get the US record.
“I think my run in Boston on a tough course gave me quite a bit of confidence to go out there today. I knew that this was possible off the back of it. I made a lot of right decisions on the course today. There were some little mistakes though. The first mile was 4:30 and it was a tad faster than we anticipated.”
There were two maiden major marathon winners in Chicago as Hawi Feysa led home an Ethiopian 1-2 in the women’s race.
Feysa arrived as the defending Frankfurt Marathon champion and placed third in Tokyo, so expectations were high for the 24-year-old in what was just her fourth race over 26.2 miles.
Competition was fierce however and Feysa’s compatriot Megertu Alemu – winner of the 2024 Valencia Marathon – ended up being her closest challenger in Chicago.
Feysa, alongside Tanzania’s Magdalena Shauri, crossed half-way in 67:30 with Alemu just seven seconds back. In the latter stages of the race Shauri dropped back, with 15 seconds separating Feysa and Alemu at 35km.
There was little doubt of Feysa being fazed though and she ran almost perfectly even splits of 67:30-67:26 to secure the victory. As a result, Feysa has now shot up to fifth on the marathon all-time list.
“Winning here has been amazing and I trained really hard for this victory,” she said. “My coach has been extremely instrumental in this block and I have to thank him. I’ve gained a lot of confidence and morale to win.”
The leading American in the field was Natosha Rogers, who improved her personal best of 2:23:51 – set at the Nagoya Marathon in Japan – to 2:23:28.
“It was amazing. every ounce goes into this, just to make the start line,” she said. Let alone the finish line and let alone to be the top American. I’m just so grateful for every step. The crowd were screaming my name and that was beautiful.
“So much of it is mental and it’s mind over matter. We’re all hurting out there. We go through good and bad waves. It’s just about having that grit and determination. This isn’t for the light-hearted!”
It appeared that Calli Hauger-Thackery, after going through half-way in 12th place with 70:58, dropped out before the 25km mark.
In the elite wheelchair divisions, Marcel Hug won a record-breaking sixth marathon title with 1:23:20 in Chicago. He has now triumphed in Boston, London, Sydney, Berlin and Chicago this year. Susannah Scaroni secured her second victory in the city with a mark of 1:38:14.
