All eyes on Kiptum in fierce Chicago marathon battle

“Chicago has been home to world-records, historic debuts and has served as an introduction to runners who became legends of the sport,” Executive Race Director Carey Pinkowski said in an early September statement, set to usher in the 2023 Bank of America Chicago Marathon that takes place this weekend.

Whilst this year’s edition harbors "one of the deepest, most-decorated assemblies of athletes in race history,” one particular line - home to world records - could be one that Kenyan marathoner dubbed ‘the new kid on the block’ Kelvin Kiptum would like to ignore, but knows that going by his blistering start to road-running, expectations on a crazy time will be sky high.

Literally bouncing out from the blues, Kiptum, one of the 10 men’s elite field runners that boast a personal best of under 2 hours and 10 minutes, stunned the world with a 2:01:53 performance in his debut marathon in Valencia last year.

Seemingly in a humble quest to shush any questions surrounding his ‘one-off display’, the Kenyan was at it again earlier this year, when he went on to produce one of the fastest second half splits in a remarkable 2:01:25 finish in the 2023 London Marathon.

With slightly over five months of a break in-between leading up to Sunday’s race, his first in the 26.2 mile distance race, Kiptum shared his training regime, while offering his expectations.

“I train daily, I cover 25 kilometers every morning and 13 kilometers later in the afternoon. I also do long runs on Thurdays that see me cover between 35 kilometers to 40 kilometers,” Kiptum told People Sport in September when asked about his preparations.

On his target, he told Nation Sport: “My target here is to run a course record which has been in existence since 2013 and I know if we compete well, we can achieve that.”

We?

Apart from chasing Dennis Kimetto’s course record of 2:03:45 set in 2013, Kiptum will face a familiar face in Daniel Mateiko, a man making his marathon debut, but also a key figure in Kiptum’s record run in April, when he acted as his pacemaker in London.

Mateiko looking to cause an upset at Chicago Marathon

A multiple half marathon champion, Mateiko will definitely offer up ‘the unknown’, but not so much as reigning and defending champion Benson Kipruto, aiming to be the first back-to-back men’s open field champion since Sammy Wanjiru in 2010.

In addition, Olympic medalist Bashir Abdi, 2021 Chicago winner Seifu Tura, Olympic hopeful and American leader Connor Mantz, and 2017 champion and the only American to win the race in the last 20 years, Galen Rupp, will be in contention, all adding up to the list of concerns that Kiptum will have to battle with as he lines up at the start-line.

Whatever the case, we ought not to look down upon his ability to take some 17 seconds away from his personal best time.