How fast was Kelvin Kiptum’s men's marathon world record? Chicago Marathon 2023 race pace breakdown and split times
The 23-year-old Kenyan shattered Eliud Kipchoge’s marathon world record on Sunday 8 October with a time of 2:00:35. But how did it stack up against Kipchoge’s previous world record? Find the key things you need to know below.
Athletics
There’s a huge buzz around the men’s marathon at the moment and it all comes down to the performance of one man: Kelvin Kiptum.
The 23-year-old has only run three marathons in his short career however, he now stands alone as the fastest marathoner in the world.
On Sunday 8 October 2023, Kiptum destroyed the official world record, that had belonged to marathon legend Eliud Kipchoge. But the manner in which he did it has reformed the landscape of the 42.195 km distance forever, in a race that was live on Olympic Channel via Olympics.com and the official Olympics app.
Kiptum’s time of 2 hours and 35 seconds is 34 seconds faster than the best of Kipchoge, set at the 2022 Berlin Marathon.
Suddenly, the idea of a sub-two-hour marathon in legal conditions seems not only possible but almost inevitable, should the young Kenyan continue his ascendency in the sport using new shoe technology.
Kiptum set the fastest debut time (2:01:53) in his first race at the distance at the 2022 Valencia Marathon.
He followed it up with the second fastest marathon ever (2:01:25) in rainy conditions at this year’s London Marathon 2023.
However, his 2023 Chicago Marathon run took the event to a whole new level. A level that just a few short years ago seemed beyond the realms of possibility.
Of course, Kipchoge has run a marathon faster than Kiptum at the 2019 Ineos 1:59 Challenge where he set a time of 1:59:40. However, due to the conditions of the race, including rotating pacemakers and other features, this run does not count as a legal world record.
Yet with the emergence of Kiptum and his new shoes, the idea of what is possible in the marathon has now changed. No longer is a sub-two-hour run at a Marathon Major thought of as something in the far away future, it may well be on the close horizon.
Kelvin Kiptum's Chicago Marathon splits compared to Eliud Kipchoge's Berlin Marathon
How fast was Kelvin Kiptum’s world record vs. Eliud Kipchoge’s Berlin Marathon run?
In the 2023 Chicago Marathon, Kiptum’s average pace was around 2:51 min/km compared to Kipchoge’s pace of 2:52 min/km at the Berlin Marathon in 2022.
He started the race with a first five-kilometre time of 14:26, which was 12 seconds slower than Kipchoge ran at the equivalent point of the race in Berlin (14:14).
Kipchoge passed through the 10km mark in a time of 28:23, comparing favourably to Kiptum’s own time of 28:42. At the 20km mark, Kipchoge had a time of 56:45 compared to Kiptum’s 57:39.
However, even though he has only enjoyed a short career to date, Kiptum has become well known for his ability to post negative splits, running the second half of a marathon faster than the first.
By the 30th kilometre, Kiptum’s times began to separate from Kipchoge’s as he completed the previous split in 14:27 compared to the former marathon world record holder’s 14:32.
But it was what happened next that really set the tone for this new world record.
A five-kilometre split of 13:51 between kilometres 30 and 35 was a full 39 seconds faster than Kipchoge’s at the same stage of the race, albeit on different courses. Another rapid split followed, with Kiptum reaching the 40th kilometre with a 5km split of 14:01. Kipchoge’s split at the same time was 14:43.
With a final burst of speed, Kiptum closed the last 2.195km of the race with a time of 6:12, four seconds faster than Kipchoge’s equivalent.
In the end, while consistency was key to Kipchoge’s 2022 world record, the ability to run faster than ever in the closing stages of the Chicago Marathon proved key to Kiptum’s incredible world record.