NAIROBI, Kenya, Mar 13 – Kenya’s 2019 World Champion Ruth Chepng’etich is the latest millionaire in town, having clinched the biggest prize purse in women’s marathon running after winning the Nagoya Marathon in Japan on Sunday to take home a whooping Sh28.5mn (USD250,000).
Chepng’etich ran the second fastest ever time in a women’s only marathon, clocking 2hrs, 17mins and 18secs, finishing ahead of Kenyan-turned Israeli Lornah Salpeter who clocked 2hrs, 18mins and 44secs.
The World Champion was 17seconds slower than Mary Keitany’s all-women World Record of 2hrs, 17mins, 01secs.
The race became a two-woman battle between Chepngetich and Salpeter after the 30-kilometer mark, but Chepngetich made a decisive uphill surge with around 8 km remaining, running strongly all the way to the finish line.
The world marathon champion ran a negative split – covering the first half in 1:09:03 and the second in 1:08:15 – to triumph ahead of Israel’s Salpeter.
Chepngetich had been targeting her own PB of 2:17:08, run in a mixed race in Dubai in 2019, and achieving that would have taken her very close to her compatriot Mary Keitany’s women-only marathon world record of 2:17:01 set in London in 2017.
When she ran solo through half way in 1:09:03 and passed 30km in 1:38:14, it looked like that target might be out of reach. Salpeter had also caught her by that point, but that only spurred Chepngetich on.
Digging deep, Chepngetich recorded 16:03 for the next 5km to re-establish her dominance and another 5km split of 16:05 put her well clear of her rivals by 40km, which she passed in 2:10:22.
Glancing over her shoulder, she could see no threat but continued to push hard to the finish line, crossing it just 10 seconds outside her PB, in 2:17:18, to win by almost a minute and a half.
As well as being the second-quickest women-only marathon in history behind Keitany’s record, it is also the second-fastest ever women’s marathon on Japanese soil.
The 2020 Tokyo Marathon winner Salpeter secured second place in 2:18:45, exactly a minute off her national record run in Japan’s capital city, to record – like Chepngetich – the second-fastest marathon time of her career.
-Additional reporting from World Athletics
