Kiptum hits Chicago and destroys the marathon world record

Brief information. Kelvin Kiptum broke the world marathon record in Chicago. As? Yes, you read correctly. The marathon world record. Eliud Kipchoge's? Yes. But wasn't Kipchoge unattainable? Yes. Well, no. Kiptum, another Kenyan, left his 2:01:09 behind and clocked 2:00:35, which also breaks the two-hour and one-minute barrier and comes close to surpassing the two-hour barrier.

In the third marathon of his life, Kiptum, 23 years old, is today the wonder of athletics, he rose to fame in the Valencia marathon, in December 2022, in his debut in the event. He then completed 2:01:53 and became the third man in history, after Kipchoge himself and the Ethiopian Kenenisa Bekele (2:01:41). But this year, in London, he clocked 2:01:25, 16 seconds behind Kipchoge.. I already had it very close. Would he get even closer? Would you pass it?

Two questions and one answer: yes.

From very early on the hares began to have problems. Ronald Kirui held on a little longer and accompanied Kiptum and Daniel Mateiko, also Kenyan, until almost the half marathon, which he passed in 1:00:48. A frenetic pace that increased when, at kilometer 33, the one preferred by Kiptum, based on his performances in Valencia and London, the new record holder accelerated and killed Mateiko.

Already in imperial solitude, Kiptum did not falter and concluded his work with that record of 2:00:35 (you have to repeat it many times to believe it). He finished the second half marathon in 59:47. an impossible. Between the quality of the athletes and the “miracle shoes”, converted into the “seven league boots”, we are witnessing, in the global context, a kind of reconsideration of biology and reinvention of the species.