Born 30 years ago, on August 30, 1994, Ruth Chepngetich rose to stardom among distance runners when she won the gold medal at the 2019 World Athletics Championships in Doha, Qatar, under very harsh conditions: 32 degrees of temperature and almost 75 percent humidity. In that race, which marked her World Cup debut, she was 1m03 ahead of the defending champion, Rose Chelimo, from Bahrain. On that occasion, 28 of the 68 participants could not complete the route due to the extreme weather. “I am so happy and I thank God for my victory,” Chepngetich exclaimed as he crossed the finish line.
But if that was their consecration in high competition, the demonstrations in the “Majors” would soon come, where they also compete for succulent prizes and the search for the best brands. Chepngetich debuted with a third place in London 2020 and won in Chicago 2021 in 2h22m31 and 2022 in 2h14m18, which showed his technical evolution, since that time this Sunday meant the fourth best record in the history of the test. He only gave in last year to another phenomenon called Sifan Hassan, a representative of the Netherlands who has just achieved the Olympic marathon in Paris.
Chepngetich had already shown that he had the conditions to approach that level. On February 4, 2021, in Istanbul, he broke the half marathon world record with 1h04m02, a mark later surpassed by two Ethiopians, Letesenbet Gidey with 1h02m52, and Yalemzerf Yehualaw with 1h03m51, both in Valencia, in October of that year.
Ruth overcame her Olympic frustration at Tokyo 2020, where she abandoned the marathon run in Sapporo, and won the Nagoya marathon twice: 2022 and 2023. Another of her relevant triumphs, given the level of competitiveness, was the national cross country title from Kenya, last year.
As a half marathon runner we were proud to welcome her in the last two years in Buenos Aires. She was third in the 21k in 2023 with 1h06m18 and on August 25 she became the star of the event by winning with the circuit record (1h05m58), despite the intense cold that Sunday. “I am very happy to return to Buenos Aires. “I loved the circuit and, above all, the atmosphere of the crowd and seeing so many people racing,” he said.
“I felt very good. It was a great test for the Chicago Marathon“, she said this Sunday after becoming the first woman to run a marathon (42,195 meters) under 2 hours and 10 minutes. Perhaps she herself did not imagine the magnitude of her achievement.