At the 2023 Chicago Marathon last weekend, 23-Year old Kelvin Kiptum of Kenya set a new marathon world record of 2h 00m 35s. This is a 34-second improvement on the previous record of 2:01:09 set by Eliud Kipchoge in Berlin back in September 2022.
Until just over 10 months ago, the 23-year-old Kiptum had never run a marathon. As of mid-Oct 2023, he has now ran three of the fastest top 10 marathon times.
All-time marathon top 10 as of mid Oct 2023
2:00:35 Kelvin Kiptum Kenya 2023 Chicago
2:01:09 Eliud Kipchoge Kenya 2022 Berlin
2:01:25 Kelvin Kiptum Kenya 2023 London
2:01:39 Eliud Kipchoge Kenya 2018 Berlin
2:01:41 Kenenisa Bekele Ethiopia 2019 Berlin
2:01:53 Kelvin Kiptum Kenya 2022 Valencia
2:02:37 Eliud Kipchoge Kenya 2019 London
2:02:40 Eliud Kipchoge Kenya 2022 Tokyo
2:02:42 Eliud Kipchoge Kenya 2023 Berlin
2:02:48 Birhanu Legese Ethiopia 2019 Berlin
A trend of new fast marathon times is due in no small part to the current crop of high technology shoes. Kiptum crossed the line in a world record time at the Chicago Marathon on Sunday in a pair of Nike Alphafly 3 shoes.
According to his coach, Kiptum ran three weeks of more than 300 kilometres (186 miles) per week before his London victory this spring.
Many will question if the shoes and intense training are the only reasons? One line in an article on the LetsRun website sums up what a lot of people will be thinking...
“Doping is everywhere in Kenya,” he laments. “But it is mainly the clumsy ones who are caught, victims of a lack of education and information.”
Until such time that someone fails a test then these are just opinions and the new record stands.
You can check out these links for more info.
a) BBC News... https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/athletics/67047638
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