Amos Kipruto Wins the Chicago Marathon On His Third Attempt

Amos Kipruto won the Chicago Marathon on Sunday in 2:01:09, pulling away from defending champion Jacob Kiplimo after 30K and finishing 1:47 clear of Ethiopia’s Tadese Takele. Only Kelvin Kiptum, with his 2:00:35 world record in 2023, has won the race faster. The 34-year-old Kenyan had been third here in 2024 and second last year, and the time takes 30 seconds off the personal best he set in London in April. It also matches Eliud Kipchoge’s best, which puts the two of them joint fifth on the all-time list.

Milkesa Mengesha came through from fifth at 35K to take third in 2:03:46, and Kiplimo, who had been on course record pace with Kipruto at 30K, finished fourth in 2:04:18.

For the first half of the race, six men ran together in a group so even that each of the first four 5K sections took only 14:18 or 14:19. They went through halfway in 1:00:21, five seconds behind Kiplimo’s own split here a year ago. The pace lifted soon afterward, with 14:06 between 20K and 25K, and that broke up the group. By 30K, which Kipruto and Kiplimo passed side by side in 1:25:28, three seconds quicker than Kiplimo’s split last year, Takele and Daniel Mateiko were 16 seconds behind and Mengesha almost a minute.

Kipruto made his move over the next 5K. He ran 14:30 from 30K to 35K and was 12 seconds ahead of Kiplimo at 35K, and he kept going at almost exactly the same speed, 14:33, to reach 40K in 1:54:31. He was still a few seconds inside Kiptum’s course record pace at 35K, but the record had slipped beyond him by 40K, and he ran the second half in 1:00:48.

Kiplimo’s race came apart behind him. He needed 16:32 to get from 35K to 40K, and Takele, who had been 45 seconds down on him at 35K, went past on the way. Mengesha caught him as well before the finish, and Kiplimo covered the second half in 1:03:57. It is the second year in a row that the Ugandan has slowed sharply over the closing miles in Chicago. Last October he passed 30K in 1:25:31, at the time the fastest 30K split ever run in a marathon, and still won in 2:02:23 because nobody was close enough to catch him.

Takele’s 2:02:56 is a personal best by 27 seconds for the two-time Tokyo champion, who was running only his sixth marathon and his first outside Berlin and Tokyo. Chicago is Kipruto’s second major title, four years after he won London.

Clayton Young Leads the Americans

Clayton Young was the first American across the line, seventh in 2:05:23, less than four weeks after a scan found a 12-centimeter tear in a hamstring tendon. It is 18 seconds quicker than the 2:05:41 he ran in Boston in April, and 2:37 faster than his previous best on a record-eligible course. Charles Hicks was eighth in 2:05:35, and Vinny Mauri, who led the American men for most of the race, was 10th in 2:06:46.

For 30 kilometers the American story was Mauri’s. Running only his second marathon, six months after a 2:05:54 debut at Glass City, he went through halfway in 1:02:15, four seconds quicker than Conner Mantz on his way to the 2:04:43 American record here last year, and was 25 seconds inside record pace at 30K. He then stopped to stretch twice between 30K and 35K, slowed to 15:27 for that 5K, and Hicks and Young both went past him in the final miles.

Hicks had told Citius Mag before the race that he wanted to be the first American in Chicago, after finishing second American in New York and in Boston. He finished second American again, 12 seconds behind Young.

Men’s Results

1. Amos Kipruto (KEN), 2:01:09
2. Tadese Takele (ETH), 2:02:56
3. Milkesa Mengesha (ETH), 2:03:46
4. Jacob Kiplimo (UGA), 2:04:18
5. Boki Diriba (ETH), 2:05:01
6. Daniel Mateiko (KEN), 2:05:01
7. Clayton Young (USA), 2:05:23
8. Charles Hicks (USA), 2:05:35
9. Akira Akasaki (JPN), 2:05:48
10. Vinny Mauri (USA), 2:06:46