Kenya’s Brigid Kosgei
eclipsed the 16-year-old women’s marathon world record held by Britain’s Paula
Radcliffe as she retained her Chicago title.
The 25-year-old
recorded a time of two hours 14 minutes 04 seconds, easily inside Radcliffe’s
mark of 2:15:25 set at the London Marathon in 2003.
It adds to the
Kenyan’s win in London this year when she clocked 2:18:20 and became the
youngest winner of the race.
Ethiopa’s Ababel
Yeshaneh was second in Chicago, six minutes 47 seconds behind.
Only 22 runners in the
men’s race finished faster than Kosgei, whose time would have been a men’s
world record in 1964.
The Kenyan, who won
last year in 2:18:35, admitted: “I was not expecting to run like
this.”
Radcliffe’s 2003 time
was the longest-standing marathon world record by either men or women in the
post-war era.
The former world
champion was at the finish line in Chicago to witness Kosgei’s remarkable
performance and was among the first to congratulate her.
“When I saw how
fast Brigid was running in the first half I knew it was going to be
broken,” said Radcliffe.
Ethiopa’s Gelete Burka
completed the top three in Chicago on Sunday with a time of 2:20:51.
Meanwhile,
Switzerland’s Manuela Schar retained her wheelchair title, finishing 30 seconds
faster than last year in 1:41.08.