Admin l Sunday, October
CHICAGO – Kenyan female long distant, Brigid Kosgei today smashed world record at the Chicago Marathon when she clocked 2:14:04 to emerge winner of the IAAF Gold Label road race.
Kosgei was not the only Kenyan with brilliant performance during the road race. Eliud Kipchoge, a felow Kenyan also became the first man to cover 26.2 miles in hours in a record time of 1:59:41 in Vienna.
Kosgei, also won in Chicago last year when she clocked 2:18:35 and improved at the London Marathon earlier this year when she clocked 2:18:20 in the first 5km in 15:28.
Ethiopia’s Ababel Yeshaneh recorded 15:36 while Gelete Burka was 27 seconds behind.
Kosgei’s pace dropped slightly after that initial enthusiasm but the 25-year-old settled into regular 16-minute splits for each five-kilometre segment. She went through 10km in 31:28, 2:12:26 marathon pace, and 15km in 47:26. At that point she was almost a minute ahead of Yeshaneh, who was on schedule for a 2:16:00 finish at that point.
Kosgei’s half-way split of 1:06:59 suggested a finishing time of about 2:14:00. Fewer than five kilometres later, her lead over Yeshaneh had grown to two minutes, reaching 25km in 1:19:33. As she continued to run behind two male pacemakers, Kosgei added another minute to her lead thanks to a 15:45 split between 25km and 30km.