Amos Kipruto wins Chicago Marathon in 2:01:09 as Hawi Feysa defends title
Kenyan, 34, runs second-fastest time in Chicago race history as Clayton Young is first American home and Emma Grace Hurley sets a US debut record.
Amos Kipruto ran 2:01:09 to win the Chicago Marathon on Sunday (Oct 11), beating defending champion Jacob Kiplimo in a race that had begun at two-hour pace. Ethiopia’s Hawi Feysa retained her women’s title in a personal best of 2:13:33 after a thrilling duel with Sharon Lokedi.
Kipruto’s time is the second fastest ever run on the Chicago course, behind only Kelvin Kiptum’s 2:00:35 world record from 2023. It is also a PB for the 34-year-old, who ran 2:01:39 in London in April. He staggered over the line and lay down on the ground briefly, exhausted.
He has now been on the Chicago podium three years in a row, having finished third in 2024 and second in 2025. He trains with world record-holder Sabastian Sawe.
The leaders went through halfway in 60:21. Once the pacemakers dropped out, Kiplimo pushed the tempo, with only Kipruto and Ethiopia’s Tadese Takele able to go with him.
At 30km the two Kenyan and Ugandan stars, Kipruto and Kiplimo, were the last two on two-hour pace in 1:25:28, after a 14:09 split for 25km to 30km that equated to 1:59:25 pace. Near the 20-mile mark Kipruto made his break and powered away, and a 14:20 from 30km to 35km opened a 12-second gap with less than four miles remaining.
Kiplimo, who had not raced since finishing third in London in April, faded considerably. Kipruto passed 24 miles in 1:50:28, with Kiplimo at 1:52:00. Takele finished second in 2:02:56, Milkesa Mengesha was third in 2:03:46 and Kiplimo fourth in 2:04:18. Boki Diriba and Daniel Mateiko were both timed at 2:05:01 for fifth and sixth.
“Thank you to Chicago to give me the opportunity to run here,” said Kipruto. “It was good for me today. I’ve been here three times now and was third on my first time, then second and now first. I was here to fight for the top of the podium. My preparation was perfect this time and I improved a lot on training compared to my previous marathon. Everything is all about mindset. It was a tough field but I told myself ‘let’s go!’”
Conner Mantz’s American record of 2:04:43 was not threatened in the end, but the US men’s race was hotly contested. Vinny Mauri went through halfway in 62:15, with Charles Hicks and Clayton Young together in 62:32. Mauri was on 2:04:07 pace at 30km in 1:28:15, with Hicks and Young about 40 seconds behind, but he stopped to stretch with cramp after 1hr 41min and faded to 2:06:45.
Young, who had run the race with a hamstring tear, was the first American home in seventh in 2:05:23, a PB and just ahead of his previous best of 2:05:41. Hicks, who recently switched allegiance from Great Britain, was 12 seconds behind in 8th in 2:05:35. Mauri was the third American in 10th.
Galen Rupp, meanwhile, ran 2:06:55 – the second fastest marathon of his career – in his first marathon as a 40-year-old.
Young said: "I gutted it out all the way to the finish line and literally taking it a mile at a time. I was worried about how I felt at the start but I hoped and prayed that everything would hold together. The big goal was to break the American record but it was still good to come away as the top US runner."
The two lead women’s groups merged and passed halfway in about 66:06 – 2:12 pace – with Feysa, Brigid Kosgei, Lokedi and Loice Chemnung together. They went through 25km in around 78:26 and by 30km it was down to Feysa and Lokedi, who were stride for stride in 1:34:16.
The pair were still locked together at 25 miles, exchanging the lead. Just over 2hr 10min into the race, as they entered the final mile, Feysa finally broke away and finished in 2:13:33, a big PB, having come into the race with a best of 2:14:57. Lokedi, making her Chicago debut, was second in 2:14:07 and Kosgei third in 2:14:55.
Feysa’s time is faster than the 2:14:04 Kosgei ran here in 2019 to break the world record at the time, but not as quick as Sifan Hassan's 2023 winning time of 2:13:44 or Ruth Chepngetich's controversial world record of 2:09:56 from 2024.
“After winning I just want to thank God,” said Feysa, who trains with Tigist Assefa. “I’m so happy and elated to win for a second time.” Asked when she knew she had won, she said: “It became quite a battle after the pacemaker dropped out. After 35km I became pretty sure I would win.”
Mary Ngugi-Cooper was fourth in 2:17:23 and Joan Kilimo fifth in 2:18:38.
Emma Grace Hurley made a stunning marathon debut, going through halfway in 69:50 in 10th and finishing 7th in 2:20:48, a US female debut record that beat Fiona O’Keeffe’s mark.
Australia’s Issy Batt-Doyle passed Hurley in the closing stages to take 6th in 2:20:38, breaking Jessica Stenson’s Australian record.
It was a good day for adidas, too, as their athletes won both the men’s and women’s races.
In the wheelchair races, Switzerland’s Marcel Hug smashed the course record by more than a minute with 1:21:34 to claim his seventh victory in Chicago.
His compatriot Catherine Debrunner broke her own women’s wheelchair marathon world record, clocking 1:33:16, a full minute inside the 1:34:16 she set at the 2023 Berlin Marathon.
