Kelvin Kiptum broke the men’s marathon world record in Chicago on Sunday, October 8, becoming the first person to record a time faster than 2:01:00, crossing the line in 2:00:35.
The 23-year-old shaved 34 seconds off the previous world record which belonged to Eliud Kipchoge. He was running his third competitive marathon of his career.
He completed the race almost three and a half minutes ahead of anyone else; Kenya’s Benson Kipruto finished in second and Belgium’s Bashi Abdi in third.
Kiptum had earlier predicted his win.
“I knew I was coming for a course record, but a world record – I am so happy,” Kiptum stated.
“A world record was not on my mind today, but I knew one day I would be a world record-holder,” he added.
Kiptum earned USD 100,000 (14.7 million). He could earn an additional USD 50,000 (Ksh7.3 million) for setting the record.
Until just over 10 months ago, the 23-year-old Kiptum had never run a marathon.
But victories in Valencia in December and London in April, where he ran the second-fastest time ever, marked him out as a special talent.
