It was a Kenyan affair in both the men’s and women’s marathon in Chicago, USA today.
While Kenya’s Eliud Kipchoge won the Chicago Marathon men’s crown on Sunday in an unofficial time of two hours, four minutes and 11 seconds, Rita Jeptoo won the women’s title.
For Kipchoge, it was only the fourth marathon start.
The 29-year-old distance star, took 5,000-meter silver at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and bronze four years earlier at Athens and captured a 2003 world title at the distance.
He also won his marathon debut last year at Hamburg.
For Rita, it was her second consecutive Chicago Marathon women’s title, giving her four marathon triumphs in a row.
The 33-year-old won in an unofficial time of two hours, 24 minutes and 36 seconds.
Jeptoo completed double marathon wins in the same year at Boston and Chicago for the second year in a row.
Top finishers from Sunday’s Chicago Marathon:
Men
1. Eliud Kipchoge (KEN) 2 hrs 4 mins 11 secs; 2. Sammy Kitwara (KEN) 2:04:28; 3. Dickson Chumba (KEN) 2:04:32, 4. Kenenisa Bekele (ETH) 2:05:51, 5. Bernard Koech (KEN) 2:08:30; 6. Ghirmay Ghebreslassie (ETH) 2:09:08, 7. Lani Rutto (KEN) 2:10:42, 8. Wesley Korir (KEN) 2:11:09, 9. Bobby Curtis (USA) 2:11:20, 10. Koji Kobayashi (JPN) 2:11:43
Women
1. Rita Jeptoo (KEN) 2:24:35, 2. Mare Dibaba (ETH) 2:25:37, 3. Florence Kiplagat (KEN) 2:25:57, 4. Birhane Dibaba (ETH) 2:27:02, 5. Amy Hastings (USA) 2:27:03, 6. Clara Santucci (USA) 2:32:21, 7. Sarah Crouch (USA) 2:32:44, 8. Gelete Burka (ETH) 2:34:17, 9. Melissa White (USA) 2;34:19, 10. Lauren Jimison (USA) 2:34:38