Ruth Chepngetich had just run 42.195 km in 2h09’56, improving by around two minutes the women’s marathon world record held since 2023 by the Ethiopian Tigist Assefa (2h11’53), who herself had improved by around two minutes the women’s marathon world record held since 2019 by Kenyan Brigid Kosgei (2h14’4). The previous best mark, the 2h15’25 of the British Paula Radcliffe, had stood for sixteen years. “We have to realize that for a long time, we were talking about the 2h15 mark among women, and that it was completely shattered,” sighs Swiss national coach Michi Rüegg. It blurs all the benchmarks…”
Split Feat
Here are some of them, for reference. Minimum performance to qualify for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games: 2h26. Swiss record, established by Fabienne Schlumpf in 2023: 2h24’30. Let’s stay in our country: only three men, in all of history, have run the marathon in less than 2h10: Tadesse Abraham, Viktor Röthlin and Matthias Kyburz. Julien Wanders, European half-marathon record holder, managed 2h11’52 during his first attempt in 2022 and is thinking of aiming “around 2h10 in 2025”, he told us recently. “Among women,” continues Michi Rüegg, “a performance under 2h20 remains exceptional for most athletes.” There are 25 of them who can boast of it since the start of 2024.
Since the year 2000, the marathon world record has improved by more than ten minutes for women; twice as much as in men. In absolute terms, Fabienne Schlumpf’s personal trainer sees nothing incongruous: women started from further afield, and they perhaps benefited more from advances in technology (shoes) and theory (training). , nutrition). But “two minutes of improvement per year over two years is a lot,” he says.
What is surprising, even more than the evolution of the women’s world record, is the progress of the athlete who broke it. Before this weekend, Ruth Chepngetich had never set a better time than 2:14:18 (in 2022), which means she improved her personal best by four minutes and twenty-one seconds. That’s impressive in itself, and his race on Saturday was impressive in virtually every part of it. She completed the first 5 kilometers in fifteen minutes, twenty-six seconds less than the best 5000 meters on the track of her career, then the ten kilometers in 30’14, faster than she had ever run an event 10 kilometers on the road (30’29) or 10,000 meters on the track (31’47). Furthermore, the two halves of his marathon record (1h04’16 then 1h05’40) would constitute his second and fifth best personal half-marathon performances.
The hare postman
After the race, Ruth Chepngetich highlighted “the perfect conditions” encountered in Chicago, a rolling event, conducive to good performances, which she won for the third time in four years, as well as her “very good preparation” accomplished with “this world record in mind”. There is something else. At mixed events, women are likely to benefit from male hares, which is a decisive advantage. The best time of all time in exclusively women’s races was achieved by another Kenyan, Peres Jepchirchir, in April 2024: 2h16’16.
As noted The TeamRuth Chepngetich relied in Illinois on two leading runners, including a certain Barnabas Kiptum who posted a personal best performance of 2h04’17 “and could have played for the podium in the men’s race”. Valuable support not only sporting but also psychological, underlines in the sports daily the former French runner Christelle Daunay, on whom the Kenyan was able to count “until the end”. This had not been the case during a previous world record attempt, in 2022, when she had for a long time had a time of 2h11 in her sights before “crackling”.
Now that the thirty-year-old has “reached [son] objective”, the women’s world record is now only 7.75% slower than the men’s. It is over this distance that the margin is smallest, according to calculations by the specialist site LetsRun.com. “It’s hard to believe, but it’s there and we have to deal with it,” concludes Michi Rüegg.
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