Week in Review: New names overtake reigning Kipchoge in marathon
Victories by Chebet and Kiptum in Boston and London marathons could indicate the end of an era
I have never been a fair-weather fan who jumps to conclusions based on the results of one sporting event. I take a let’s-see-what-happens-next attitude before assuming a particular team or individual’s reign at the top is over.
Yet I cannot help feeling that a sea change occurred in the men’s marathon last week.
First, Evans Chebet of Kenya won his second consecutive men’s title in the Boston Marathon on Monday, April 17, in a race in which countryman and world record-holder Eliud Kipchoge placed sixth. Then, Kelvin Kiptum, yet another Kenyan, ran the second-fastest time in history in winning the London Marathon on Sunday.
The 38-year-old Kipchoge had entered his first Boston Marathon as the world-record-holder at 2 hours 1 minute 9 seconds and the winner of a phenomenal 15 of 17 career marathon races, including Olympic titles in 2016 and ’21. But he was quickly dropped from the lead pack shortly after the 30-kilometer mark — when Tanzanian Gabriel Geay picked up the pace — and ended up finishing sixth in 2:09:23, the slowest time of his career and roughly three and a half minutes behind Chebet’s 2:05:54 clocking over the hilly layout.
Based on past performances, it would not be surprising to see Kipchoge come back this fall and run a very fast marathon if he were to race over a flat course in Berlin in September, Chicago in October, or Valencia, Spain in December. But his aura of invincibility would appear to be gone.
I know Kipchoge said a day after the race that he had been having an issue with his upper left leg heading into Boston. There were others who opined that his struggles could be attributed to the combination of cool and wet weather conditions, or that he spent too much time at the front the lead pack running into a breeze, rather than tucking in behind some of his fellow competitors. But the bottom line is the 34-year-old Chebet looked to be in full command of the race during the last 12 kilometers. His time was nearly a minute faster than what he ran last year and gave him a 10-second margin of victory over Geay and a 12-second advantage over training mate Benson Kipruto, winner of last year’s Chicago Marathon.
“I was elated yesterday at the finish line,” Chebet said about winning his second consecutive Boston title while speaking through an interpreter at a news conference on Tuesday. “Twice is not usual. It is a rather unusual occasion. . . I was very elated yesterday at the finish line.”
While Kipchoge has been the No. 1-ranked men’s marathon runner in the world an unprecedented seven times by Track & Field News, Chebet’s only top-10 rankings came in 2016 — when he was ranked 10th — and last year when he was ranked fifth after winning the New York City Marathon seven months after his victory in Boston.
However, Chebet appears to be a runner coming into his own. He has now won six of his last seven marathons — including a personal best of 2:03:00 in Valencia in 2020 — with his lone loss a fourth-place finish in the London Marathon in 2021.
As a veteran of 15 marathon races, he stands in stark contrast to the 23-year-old Kiptum, who rolled to a 2:01:25 clocking in the second marathon of his career in London on Sunday.
Kiptum was definitely one of the pre-race favorites after running 2:01:53 — then the fourth fastest time in history — in his debut marathon in Valencia in December. But his encore performance was absolutely spectacular as he ran the second half of the race in 59:45, including a stretch from 30 to 40 kilometers in which he clocked 27:50.
That split — which is significantly faster that Kiptum’s 10,000-meter track best of 28:27.87 from 2021 — blew up a five-runner lead pack and enabled him to finish nearly three minutes in front of second-place Geoffrey Kamworor, a fellow Kenyan who ran a personal best of 2:04:23.
In a Tuesday post on BBC Sport Africa, commentator Martin Keino noted that Kiptum grew up in the same village as Kamworor, the World cross country champion in 2015 and ’17, and he basically coached himself until after his victory in Valencia.
Keino, the son of two-time Olympic gold and silver medalist Kip Keino, called Kiptum a special athlete who is tremendously talented while speaking with Celestine Karoney of BBC Sport Africa.
He added that Kiptum “shows a level of fearlessness that you don’t see anymore. He’s willing to take on races and just put his foot down and really go after it like he did in London. This is what separates him from the best.”
I would not short change Chebet, who has won Boston, New York City, and Boston in his last three marathons. But Keino’s comments give me more reason to believe that a sea change took place in the men’s marathon last week.
Check out my detailed reports on the Boston Marathon on April 17 and the London Marathon on April 23.
Add Kipchoge: In order to truly appreciate the greatness of Eliud Kipchoge, it helps to know some history about the marathon.
First, he is one of only three runners to have won consecutive Olympic titles. The others are Abebe Bikila of Ethiopia (1960 and ’64) and Waldemar Cierpinski of East Germany (1976 and ’80).
Second, Kipchoge’s seven No. 1 world rankings are four more than any other man in history. The three men who were ranked No. 1 three times during their careers were Bikila (1960, ’61, ’64), and Americans Frank Shorter (1971-73) and Bill Rodgers (1975, ’77, and ’79).
Third, no one has come close to being ranked among the top 10 men’s marathoners in the world for nine consecutive seasons, as Kipchoge has done from 2013-22, taking into account that Track & Field News did not compile world rankings for the 2020 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In addition to his seven No. 1 rankings, he was ranked second in 2019 — to Kenenisa Bekele of Ethiopia — and ninth in 2013, when he ran 2:05:30 to win his debut marathon in Hamburg, Germany in April and finished second in 2:04:05 in Berlin in September.
On to the women: While one can argue that Kenyans Evans Chebet and Kelvin Kiptum are the hottest men’s marathon runners in the world right now, the title of best woman marathoner seems wide open to me.
While Hellen Obiri of Kenya won the women’s title in Boston in the second marathon of her career and Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands won her debut marathon in London, there were plenty of runners in each race who fell short of their top performances from last year. Their finishes last week show just how challenging it can be to perform at a consistently high level in the marathon.
For example, Amane Beriso of Ethiopia, who had run the third-fastest time (2:14:58) in history in winning the Valencia Marathon in Spain in December, finished second in Boston in 2:21:50 after being unable to match strides with Obiri for the final three and a half minutes of the race.
Gotytom Gebreslase, another Ethiopian, finished 10th in Boston in 2:24:34 after winning the World Athletics Championships in a personal best of 2:18:11 in Eugene, Oregon last July and placing third in the New York City Marathon in November.
Peres Jepchirchir of Kenya, who won the Olympic and New York City titles in 2021 before winning Boston last year, finished third in 2:18:38 in London after injuries had forced her to withdraw from a couple of previous marathons.
Ethiopian Yalemzerf Yehualaw, who had run 2:17:23 and 2:17:26 in winning the first two marathons of her career in Hamburg, Germany and London last year, placed fifth in 2:18:53 in London on Sunday.
Almaz Ayana, who ran 2:17:20 in her debut marathon in Amsterdam in October, finished seventh in 2:20:44 in London.
Ethiopian countrywoman Genzebe Dibaba, second in Amsterdam in 2:18:05, dropped out of the race in London.
In addition, Kenyan Brigid Kosgei, who set the world record of 2:14:04 in Chicago in 2019, dropped out of the London Marathon less than four minutes into the race after recently sustaining an injury to her right hamstring.
The 33-year-old Obiri and the 30-year-old Hassan, who have both had decorated careers on the track, used strong finishing kicks in their respective victories.
Obiri, a two-time World champion in the 5,000 as well as a World champion in cross country, broke away from Beriso with a little more than a kilometer left in Boston on her way to a time of 2:21:38 that came five months after she had finished a disappointing sixth in her marathon debut in New York City.
While Obiri bided her time in the lead pack for nearly all of her race in Boston, Hassan experienced a wild ride in London.
She was with the lead pack for the first 15 kilometers, but trailed it by 12 seconds at 20 kilometers after briefly stopping twice to stretch out her left hip area that had bothered her a week earlier.
She was 28 seconds out of the lead after 25 kilometers, but closed her deficit to three seconds at 30 kilometers, only to see it expand to 14 seconds five kilometers later. However, she was one of four women — the others were Jepchirchir, Yehualaw, and Alemu Megertu of Ethiopia — who led the race through 40 kilometers in 2:10:56.
From there, Hassan covered every move that any of her fellow competitors made before sprinting past Megertu and Jepchirchir in the final straightaway to finish in 2:18:33.
Megertu placed second in 2:18:37, with Jepchirchir third in 2:18:38.
“I couldn’t even believe it,” Hassan said in a post-race interview on the FloTrack site. “I swear to God. I just can’t believe I [won].”
Duking it out: As an American, I have to admit it was nice to see Emma Bates of the U.S. finish fifth in the women’s race in the Boston Marathon.
While other American women have finished higher or as high as the 30-year-old Bates in major marathons in recent years, they have often done so by moving up through the field in the latter part of races. In contrast, Bates was in the lead pack from the get-go in Boston and was the official leader of the race at 25 and 30 kilometers, and amongst the eight-runner lead group at 35 kilometers.
Although she had fallen four seconds behind the leading quartet at 40 kilometers, she hung tough over the final 2.2 kilometers and finished in 2:22:10.
Her time, which left her 32 seconds behind first-place Hellen Obiri of Kenya, cut more than a minute off her previous best of 2:23:18 that she had run in finishing seventh in the World Championships in Eugene, Oregon last July.
Her improvement was doubly impressive because Boston is a much tougher course than the one used for the World Championships.
Bad timing: Unfortunately, I was not surprised when Eilish McColgan of Great Britain withdrew from the London Marathon two days before the race because of swelling in her knee.
The Commonwealth Games champion in the women’s 10,000 meters had set national records of 30:00.86 in that event and 1:05:43 in the half marathon on March 4 and April 2, respectively, as she prepared to make her marathon debut in London. But she had also had to alter her race schedule more than once because of “niggles” she had felt during training.
It also turned out she had strained a hamstring during the final kilometer of her national-record effort in winning the Berlin Half Marathon.
She ended a detailed Instagram post about her withdrawal saying: “I know I'm ready to run a fast marathon, but we will have to wait a little longer for those stars to align. And when they do, I promise it will be worth the wait! 🌟”
Kenyan sweep: While the London Marathon grabbed most of the headlines in the distance running world on Sunday, Kenyans Bernard Koech and Dorcas Tuitok ran personal bests in winning the men’s and women’s divisions of the Hamburg Marathon in Germany on the same day.
Koech, who set a course record with his 2:04:09 clocking, was part of a 13-runner lead pack that passed through the halfway point in 62:32 and remained together through 27 kilometers.
It was then that the 35-year-old Koech and countrymen Joshua Belet and Martin Kosgey broke away from the others.
That trio came through 30 kilometers in 1:28:47, but Kosgey was more than 40 seconds behind the leaders when Belet went through 35 kilometers in 1:42:55, with Koech a second behind him.
Koech broke open the race during the ensuing five kilometers as his 14:30 split for that segment of the race gave him a19-second lead over Belet when he came through 40 kilometers in 1:57:26.
He added to his lead during the remainder of the race as his 2:04:09 clocking put him 24 seconds ahead of Belet, who finished in a personal best of 2:04:33. Kosgey also set a personal best of 2:06:18 in third place. He was followed by Daniel do Nascimento of Brazil, who placed fourth in 2:07:06.
The Brazilian was running in his first marathon since he had collapsed shortly after the 33-kilometer mark in the New York City Marathon in November after opening up a large lead over the rest of the field while pushing the pace on an unseasonably warm and humid day.
“I ran a good race and I knew that I probably had to run a time around my [personal best] to win,” Koech was quoted as saying in a post on the World Athletics site. “I spoke with Eliud Kipchoge about the course before I came here and he gave me some advice.”
Kipchoge, the world-record-holder and two-time Olympic champion, won the Hamburg Marathon in 2:05:30 in 2013 in his debut marathon.
Favored Tiruye Mesfin of Ethiopia appeared to be headed to a runaway victory in the women’s race after having a 13-second lead over a seven-runner chase pack when she came through the halfway point in 1:09:46. Her advantage had grown to 59 seconds over a group of four women — including Tuitok — when she passed through 35 kilometers in 1:55:21.
However, she had lost 10 seconds of her lead to second-place Tuitok when she passed 40 kilometers in 2:12:16 and she really began to slow after that. After stumbling and falling to the ground in the final kilometer, she was passed by the 25-year-old Tuitok with about 300 meters remaining in the race.
Tuitok’s winning time of 2:20:09 crushed her previous best of 2:24:54 and Mesfin finished second in 2:20:18. She was followed by Stella Chesang, who set a Ugandan record of 2:20:23 in third place.
“I was really surprised to win,” Tuitok said. “I did not see when Tiruye Mesfin fell, I was just fully focused on myself. I still had enough energy. I knew that I could probably run a 2:20 time. This course is really fast and good for records.”
Bombs away: Brooke Andersen, the defending World champion in the women’s hammer throw, opened her season by moving to third on the all-time performer list on the first day of the Virginia Challenge on April 20.
The 27-year-old Andersen’s best throw of 79.80 meters (261 feet, 10 inches) topped her previous best of 79.02 (259-3) that she set last year. She now trails only three-time Olympic champion Anita Wlodarczyk of Poland (82.98/272-3) and 2019 World champion DeAnna Price of the U.S. (80.31/263-6) on the all-time performer list.
Andersen recorded her best mark in the fifth round of the competition, but she also had throws of 79.72 (261-6) in the sixth round, 78.90 (258-10) in the second, 78.39 (257-2) in the fourth, and 76.21 (250-0) in the third. She fouled on her first throw.
Her five fair throws averaged 78.60 (257-10), a mark that has been bettered by only five women in history.
After her superb season opener, Anderson’s Instagram account posted: “One HECK of an OPENER✨
World #3 All-Time
New PR
79.80”
Eye-opening result: One race does not make a season or a career, but you can’t ignore the fact that prep sprinter Issam Asinga ran a wind-aided 9.83 seconds in winning the men’s 100 meters in the Pure Athletics Spring Invitational in Clermont, Florida on Sunday. In the process, the senior from Montverde Academy in Florida turned back Noah Lyles (9.92) in second place and fellow American Kendal Williams (9.98) in third.
Lyles, the two-time defending World champion in the 200 who wants to try to win both the 100 and 200 in the World Championships in Budapest, Hungary from August 19-27, has a personal best of 9.86 in the 100. Williams has run 9.99.
The national high school record of 10.00 was set by Trentavis Friday of Cherryville High in North Carolina in 2014.
The 18-year-old Asinga is coming off a sensational indoor season in which he lowered the national high school record in the 200 to 20.48 and equaled the prep best in the 60 at 6.57. He then ran a personal best of 20.11 in the 200 in the University of Miami Alumni Invitational on April 8. But none of those performances are comparable to what he did on Sunday, when the aiding breeze of 2.9 meters-per-second was over the allowable of 2.0 for record purposes, but far from the 4 or 5 meters-per-second winds that are common when someone runs a time as stunning as Asinga’s.
As a junior at The Principia School in St. Louis last year, Asinga had bests of 10.44 in the 100 and 20.76 in the 200, which were both run at an altitude exceeding 1,000 meters (3,280 feet).
Right on schedule: I have to admit that I was unimpressed by Sherika Jackson’s performances in the 60-meter dash during the indoor season when she ran a best of 7.18 seconds to finish fourth in a meet in Birmingham, England. But the defending World champion in the 200 appears to be coming along just fine during the early part of the outdoor season.
After running 50.92 in the 400 in a meet at the National Stadium in Kingston, Jamaica on March 25, she clocked a yearly world-leading time of 10.82 in the women’s 100 meters on Saturday while running on the same track.
The 28-year-old Jamaican was clear of her closest competitors 30 meters in the race and had a huge margin of victory as Natasha Morrison finished second in 11.09.
Moving up the list: Ryan Mphahlele of South Africa cut nearly two seconds off his personal best in the men’s 1,500 meters when he ran a yearly world-leading outdoor time of 3:32.90 in a meet in Cape Town on April 17.
The 24-year-old Mphalele was closely followed across the finish line by 26-year-old countryman Tshepo Tshite, whose 3:33.02 clocking in second place lowered his previous best by more than two seconds and was the second-fastest outdoor time in the world this year.
Mphalele and Tshite moved to second and third, respectively, on the all-time South African performer list with their performances.
The national record of 3:31.93 was set by Johan Cronje in 2013.
Double with a plan: Katelyn Touhy of North Carolina State University opened her outdoor season with a third-place finish in the women’s 1,500 meters and a fourth-place effort in the 5,000 in the Wake Forest Invitational last Friday.
Tuohy ran 4:08.29 in the 1,500, approximately an hour before she toed the starting line for the 5,000, in which she clocked 15:50.90 while looking to get a solid time that will qualify her for the NCAA East Preliminary meet at the University of North Florida from May 25-27.
The NCAA indoor champion in the 3,000 and 5,000, Tuohy clocked 47.75 seconds for the first 300 meters of the 1,500 and 1:52.99 for the first 700 while following the pace setter. She then led the field through 1,100 meters in 3:00.69, but could not hold off German Konstanze Klosterhalfen and American Angel Piccirillo over the final lap.
Klosterhalfen, the 5,000-meter gold medalist in the European Championships last year, won the 1,500 in 4:06.39 and Piccirillo placed second in 4:07.40.
Touhy’s goal in the 5,000 was to run 16 minutes, according to North Carolina State coach Laurie Henes, and the Wolfpack sophomore easily did that with her 15:50.90 clocking. While qualification for the East Preliminary meet is not based on meeting a specific performance standard, Henes and Touhy figured that a time of 16:00 would safely make her one of the 48 fastest runners in the East Region and thus qualify her for the preliminary meet in the event in which she is the defending NCAA outdoor champion.
Tuohy is expected to take a crack at bettering her 5,000 best of 15:14.61 when she runs in Sound Running’s Track Fest at Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut, California on May 6. But Henes wrote in a text that it appeared marks from that meet will not count for NCAA regional qualifying purposes. That’s what prompted Tuohy’s tempo run in the Wake Forest meet in which Fiona O’Keefe placed first in 15:25.52, followed by the NC State junior duo of Amaris Tyynismaa (15:30.37) and Kelsey Chmiel (15:43.25).
Oh so close: Aaron Sahlman of Newbury Park High School in California fell just short of breaking four minutes in the mile in the Oregon Relays on Saturday.
Running in the men’s mile, Sahlman placed fourth in a personal best of 4:00.30 to move to 19th on the all-time U.S. prep outdoor performer list, fourth on the all-time California list, and second on the all-time school list.
Sahlman’s older brother, Colin, ran 3:56.24 in the mile last year during a season for which he was selected as the Men’s Prep Athlete of the Year by Track & Field News.
Colin Sahlman is a freshman at Northern Arizona University and Nike Cross Nationals champion Aaron has signed a national letter of intent with the Big Sky Conference school.
Two liners: Kenturah Orji of the U.S. posted a yearly outdoor world-leading mark of 14.36 (47-1½) in the women’s triple jump in the South Carolina Invitational on Saturday. Orji hit her 14.36 best in the second round and also had a 14.15 (46-5¼) effort on her fourth attempt. . . . Federico Bruno of Argentina set a national record in the men’s 5,000 meters when he ran 13:11.57 to win the event in the Payton Jordan Invitational at Stanford University last Friday. Bruno’s time was the second fastest outdoor mark in the world this year. . . . Joselyn Brea of Venezuela posted the fastest outdoor time in the world this year in the women’s 5,000 when she ran 15:05.56 in the Payton Jordan Invitational last Friday. Brea’s mark crushed her previous national record of 15:21.41 that she set in 2021. . . Masai Russell of the University of Kentucky had a hand in three victories in the Michael Johnson Invitational at Baylor University on Saturday. Russell won the final of the women’s 100-meter hurdles in 12.50 — after running 12.80 in a qualifying heat — and also ran legs on teams that won the 400 relay in 43.48 and the 1,600 relay in 3:28.31. . . . Christian Coleman, the 2019 World champion in the men’s 100, continued his solid early-season sprinting in the 200 when he ran 20.11 to win the event in the Michael Johnson Invitational last Friday. Coleman had run a co-yearly world-leading time of 20.00 when he edged Letsile Tebogo of Botswana in the Miramar Invitational in Florida on April 8 in a race in which they were credited with identical times. . . . Aleia Hobbs ran a season best of 10.86 to win the women’s 100 in the LSU Gold Alumni meet in Baton Rouge on Saturday. Fellow American Tamari Davis finished second in 10.89. . . . Samwel Nyamae of Kenya ran a personal best of 2:05:08 in winning the men’s division of the Vienna City Marathon on Sunday. Nyamae had a comfortable margin of victory over second-place Bethwell Yegon (2:06:57) as Kenyans swept the first seven places. . . . Magdalene Masai of Kenya ran 2:24:12 to win the women’s division of the Vienna City Marathon on Sunday. Countrywoman Agnes Keino placed second in 2:24:25. . . . Double World champion Kimberly Garcia of Peru came from behind to win the women’s 20-kilometer race in the Korzeniowski Warsaw Race Walking Cup on Sunday. Garcia led by more than 40 seconds at the halfway mark, but she trailed 38-year-old Erica Sena of Brazil by nine seconds at the 17-kilometer mark before rallying to finish three seconds ahead of Sena with a 1:30:16 clocking.
In memory: Herb Douglas, the oldest living U.S. Olympic medal winner, has passed away at the age of 101. The University of Pittsburgh, the school for which he played football and competed in track and field, said that he died on Saturday.
Douglas won the bronze medal in the men’s long jump in the 1948 Games in London.
Track & Field News, which was founded in 1948, ranked Douglas as one of the top 10 men’s long jumpers in the world for the 1947-49 seasons, topped by a No. 4 ranking in 1949.
"In every role that he filled, as an aspiring athlete from Hazelwood, Pennsylvania, as a student-athlete and University trustee and as an esteemed businessman, Olympian and community leader, Herb Douglas excelled," Pittsburgh Chancellor Patrick Gallagher said in a statement. "He was both a champion himself and a champion of others, never hesitating to open doors of opportunity and help people pursue their own success."
According to an obituary on the University of Pittsburgh site, Douglas met Jesse Owens when he was 14, shortly after Owens’ historic performance in the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin when he won gold medals in the men’s 100 and 200 meters, long jump, and 400 relay to help lay waste to Adolf Hitler’s contention that Germans were part of a superior “Aryan” race.
When Owens asked Douglas about himself, Douglas told the Olympic legend that he competed in the 100-meter dash and the long jump.
“That’s more than what I did at your age,” Owens reportedly responded, downplaying his own accomplishments and then encouraging Douglas to get a college education.
Douglas began that quest at Xavier University in New Orleans, but he eventually left school to return home to Pittsburgh to help run a parking garage business that his father founded. Because his father was visually impaired, Douglas avoided the draft. And he enrolled at Pitt in the fall of 1945 and starred for the university’s football and men’s track and field teams before graduating in 1948 with a degree in physical education.
He was awarded a master’s degree in education from Pitt in 1950 and desperately wanted to be a coach, but he told Ebony magazine in 2017 that “Pittsburgh was not employing in the public school system African Americans to be coaches.”
He then turned to sales and marketing. He started at Pabst Brewing Company before spending 30 years at a premium wine and spirits firm that is known today as Moet Hennessy U.S., ending his career as a vice president.
He was involved with Pitt for most of his adult life, serving on the board of trustees, eventually being honored as a trustee emeritus, and funding an annual scholarship for track and field athletes at the school.
In honor of all that he did for the university, Pitt plans to name its indoor track and field facility after Douglas when it is scheduled to be completed next year.