Ruth Chepng'etich (often spelled Ruth Chepngetich, born 8 August 1994) is a Kenyan road runner who is the current women's world record holder in the

marathon The marathon is a long-distance foot race with a distance of kilometres ( 26 mi 385 yd), usually run as a road race, but the distance can be covered on trail routes. The marathon can be completed by running or with a run/walk strategy. There ...

, with a time of 2:09:56 set at the 2024 Chicago Marathon. She is the 2019 world champion in the marathon, and is a three time winner of the Chicago Marathon, having won in

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

and 2024, where she set the world record. Chepng'etich is the first woman to break the 2:11 and 2:10 barriers in the marathon, and also holds the sixth-fastest women's mark of all time for the half marathon, at 1 hour 4 minutes and 2 seconds which was at lstanbul Half-Marathon.

Career

2018

Chepng'etich won the women's only road race at the 40th Istanbul Marathon, a World Athletics Label Road Race. She ran 2:18:35, with split times of 31:59 at 10 km, 48:15 at 15 km, 1:08:22 at the half marathon mark, and 1:37:42 at 30 km. Chepng'etich's performance was a course record, the best performance ever on Turkish soil, and, at the time, was the seventh fastest time in history. In running this time Chepng'etich became the 10th athlete in history to break the 2:19 barrier, and the 30th in history to break the 2:20 barrier.

2019

At the 20th Dubai Marathon, Chepng'etich set a new course record of 2 hours, 17 minutes and 8 seconds. On 28 September, she won the world title in the

at the

2019 World Athletics Championships The 2019 IAAF World Athletics Championships () was the seventeenth edition of the biennial, global sport of athletics, athletics competition organised by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), since renamed World Athleti ...

in Doha, Qatar, clocking 2:32:43 after a midnight start due to sweltering, humid conditions. The silver medal went to Rose Chelimo of Bahrain with a time of 2:33:46, and bronze went to Namibia's 39-year-old Helalia Johannes, who clocked 2:34:15. Chepng'etich's time was the slowest world championship-winning time in history for the women's marathon. Due to the unfavorable conditions, only 40 out of 68 starters finished the race in Doha.

2020–2021

On 4 October 2020, she finished third in the

London Marathon The London Marathon (also known as the TCS London Marathon for sponsorship reasons) is an annual marathon held in London, England. Founded by athletes Chris Brasher and John Disley in 1981, it is typically held in April, although it moved to Oct ...

. On 4 April 2021, Chepng'etich set a half marathon world record of 1:04:02 at the Istanbul Half Marathon in Turkey, taking 29 seconds off the previous best set by Ababel Yeshaneh in 2020. Chepng'etich's record has since been broken, and she is currently the sixth fastest woman in history at the distance. On 10 October 2021, she took her first victory at a World Marathon Major by winning the 2021 Chicago Marathon with a time of 2:22:31. She went out fast in a 67:34 first half, and concluded significantly slower with a 74:57 second half, but still won by nearly two minutes.

2022

On 13 March, Chepng'etich clocked the second fastest ever women's only marathon time to win the Nagoya Women's Marathon in Japan, a World Athletics Elite Platinum Label race. In a new course record, she ran a negative split 2:17:18 with a 69:03 first half and a 68:15 second half. At the time, this was the joint seventh-fastest time in history, which gave her an 87 second margin of victory. She won $250,000, the biggest official prize in professional running up to that point. On 9 October, Chepng'etich successfully defended her Chicago title at the 2022 Chicago Marathon with a time of 2:14:18, a personal best by almost three minutes, then the second-fastest time in history, and just 14 seconds outside of compatriot Brigid Kosgei's then-world record of 2:14:04. Chepng'etich ran most of the race well under world record pace as she went out very fast with her first 10 miles clocked at 49:49. She ran the first half in 65:44 before running the second half much slower in 68:34. The win made her the first woman in history to break the 2:18 barrier on three separate occasions.

Chepng'etich's split times in the 2022 Chicago Marathon

2023–present: Marathon world record

On 13 October 2024, at the Chicago Marathon, Chepng'etich set a new world record in the marathon, with a time of 2:09:56, breaking Tigst Assefa's previous world record of 2:11:53 by almost two minutes. In setting this record, she became the first woman to run faster than 2:11 and 2:10 in the marathon. Chepng'etich stated she dedicated her world record to compatriot and men's world record holder Kelvin Kiptum, who died in February 2024. Chepng'etich's world record was partially met with criticism and accusations of doping. Robert Johnson of LetsRun.com directly asked Chepng'etich her thoughts on the criticisms. The Kenyan National Assembly considered Johnson's question "disrespectful". Her improvement has been attributed to the use of a Maurten carbohydrate mix and the Nike Alphafly 3 shoe.

Achievements

Personal bests

International competitions

National championships

* Kenyan Athletics Championships ** 10,000 metres: 2022 * Kenyan Cross Country Championships ** Senior women's race: 2023

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Chepng'etich, Ruth Living people 1994 births Kenyan female long-distance runners Kenyan female marathon runners Kenyan female cross country runners People from Rift Valley Province World Athletics Championships winners World Athletics Championships athletes for Kenya Athletes (track and field) at the 2020 Summer Olympics Olympic athletes for Kenya Chicago Marathon female winners