Three marathons. Three victories. The fastest ever debut in Valencia in December 2022 (2:01:53); the course record and second fastest ever in London in April 2023 (2:01:25) and now a world record 2:00:35 in the Bank of America Chicago Marathon on Sunday 8 October 2023.

That's the meteoric rise from obscurity to greatness for 23-year-old Kenyan marathon sensation Kelvin Kiptum – surely the next in line to take over the mantle of GOAT from his countryman Eliud Kipchoge and the man who is most likely to achieve the 'impossible' sub-two-hours in true racing conditions.

Talking of conditions, there was just a light breeze in the Windy City and it was an optimal 10-12C temperature during the two hours and a bit of this phenomenal performance. Early on, Kiptum was shielded by a phalanx of talented pacemakers who took the main protagonists through halfway in 1:00:48 (2:01:36 pace). Only fellow Kenyan Daniel Mateiko could stay with Kiptum at this stage.

All that changed as the master of the negative split produced a searing 5K segment of 13:51 between 30K and 35K and a second half in a phenomenal 59:47. With time to celebrate in the home straight he took a huge 36 seconds off Kipchoge's 2:01:09 set in Berlin last year. Kiptum won by a whopping 3:27 from the defending champion Benson Kipruto (Kenya, 2:04:02) with Sir Mo Farah's erstwhile training partner Bashir Abdi (Belgium, 2:04:32) third.

The women's race was very nearly as spectacular as 2022 Chicago champion Ruth Chepngetich (Kenya) set off at world record pace – Ethiopia's Tigst Assefa having raised the bar to 2:11:53 in Berlin last month – but it was the Dutchwoman Sifan Hassan, in only her second marathon, who emerged victorious in a European record and second fastest ever 2:13:44, which would have been a world record if not for Assefa's exploits in Berlin.

Chepngetich held on to second place (2:15:37) and Megurtu Alemu (Ethiopia, 2:17:09) was third. Britain's Rose Harvey (Clapham Chasers, 2:23:21) ran a superb PB by four minutes in ninth place to climb to the fifth all-time fastest in the UK and qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympic Marathon.

Hassan was racing off a short marathon build-up of just six weeks having medalled twice at the World Championships in Budapest in August. She now holds the European record for seven distances from 1500m to marathon!

Both Chicago champions were also winners of the TCS London Marathon in April and both appeared to be wearing identical Nike Dev 163 prototype shoes – not on sale to us mortals but approved by World Athletics for developmental use until December 2023.

For an escorted trip to next year's Chicago Marathon visit Marathon Tours UK here.

Results and previous reports are at the runABC South race listing here.

Photo courtesy Chicago Marathon on Facebook