21-Apr-2024 – London Marathon – 2:16:16 – Adidas AdiZero Adios Pro Evo 1
Date of birth: 27-Sep-1993
Nationality: Kenyan
Women-Only World Record duration: 1 year, 6 days
The athlete:
Peres Jepchirchir burst onto the international road racing scene with her victory at the 2016 World Half-marathon Championships. Although short-lived, she would go on to set the half-marathon world record in 2017. Winning in comfortable fashion at the 2020 Valencia Marathon secured her spot in the Kenyan marathon team for the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. In sweltering conditions she would emerge victorious ahead of the then-current outright women’s marathon world record holder Brigid Kosgei.
Further victories would follow at the 2021 New York City Marathon, and the 2022 Boston Marathon, marking Jepchirchir as one of the top elite distance runners of the day. Coming into the 2024 London Marathon, she was looking to improve on her third place finish at the event in the previous year. There was also niggling doubts about her fitness, Jepchirchir forced to miss the 2023 New York City Marathon.
The field was arguably one of the most competitive ever seen at the London Marathon, including then-current outright women’s marathon world record holder Tigst Assefa (as well as Kosgei) and Yalemzerf Yehualaw who previously held the half-marathon world record. Their aim was to at the new women’s only marathon world record. As expected, the field went out at considerable pace abd kept the momentum going, slowing only slightly as they reached halfway. Although the outright women’s marathon world record was not under threat, the time set by Mary Keitany at the 2017 London Marathon looked set to fall.
In an incredible finish, Jepchirchir would outsprint Assefa to take victory by a margin of only seven seconds with third place Joyciline Jepkosgei only one second further back. It was comfortably the new women’s only marathon world record. In fact, such was the pace that even Alemu Megertu in fourth was under the previous world record.
The shoes:
As she was sponsored by Adidas, it was with little surprise that Jepchirchir wore the latest marathon racing shoe from the company, the lightweight AdiZero Adios Pro Evo 1 featuring carbon-fibre rods and highly responsive foam. You can read more about all the technology that went into the shoe in my article about Tigst Assefa and how she used the shoe to set the outright women’s marathon world record at the 2023 Berlin Marathon.
References:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peres_Jepchirchir
https://worldathletics.org/news/report/peres-jepchirchir-women-world-marathon-record-london
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2024/apr/21/peres-jepchirchir-beats-womens-only-world-record-to-win-london-marathon
https://www.letsrun.com/news/2024/04/6-thoughts-on-2024-london-marathon-mutiso-wins-jepchirchir-is-clutch-brilliant-brits/
https://www.runnersworld.com/races-places/a60556273/peres-jepchirchir-womens-winner-2024-london-marathon/
https://news.adidas.com/running/adidas-launches-adizero-adios-pro-evo-1—the-future-of-racing.-at-its-lightest-/s/92fc11e6-105a-4c84-a196-81eca4044ad9
https://www.roadtrailrun.com/2023/09/adidas-adizero-pro-evo-1-preview-at.html
https://believeintherun.com/shoe-reviews/adidas-adizero-adios-pro-evo-1-review/