Jacob Kiplimo is back on the lips of the globe after he conquered any barriers present to win the Chicago Marathon in Illinois, USA on Sunday.
Kiplimo ran a superb second half of the 42km race to win his first global marathon on the second attempt in a time of two hours, two minutes and 23 minutes.
‘To come here to win the race is a big achievement for me,’ Kiplimo said after the race. ‘He ran very well,’ his coach Peter Chelangat said. When road races come his way, Kiplimo rarely misses the target.
Since missing a medal at the 10000 metres final during the Paris Olympics in France, Kiplimo has won four of seven road races in 13 months.
Kiplimo for long threatened the marathon world record (WR) mark of 2:00:35 set by Kenyan the late Kelvin Kiptum during his victory in Chicago two years ago.
With about 8km left to complete the race, Kiplimo threatened Kiptum’s time, with the predictor placing his finish at 2:00:13, totally blistering yet unimaginable.
But even if he mathematically withered out of that momentous pursuit, Kiplimo still finished strong to become the seventh fastest marathoner in history.
For a 24-year-old who only debuted with second place in a pretty respectable 2:03:37 at the London Marathon in England on April 27, Kiplimo is now only bettered by six names: Kiptum, Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge, Ethiopians Kenenisa Bekele and Sisay Lemma, Kenyans Sabastian Sawe and Benson Kipruto in that order.
‘I told you we only needed a better run an improvement from that of London,’ Chelangat stated, ‘We were hoping for an improvement from the previous one.’
In Chicago, Kiplimo’s mark was the quickest a marathoner has run on that flat course with long straights. Whereas Kiplimo was visibly worn out in the final mile evidenced by his collapse to the floor after the tape, the man from Bukwo had done his hard work much earlier.
A half-marathon WR holder at 56:42, Kiplimo had been pitted against defending champion Kenyan John Korir. The goal was to attempt Kiptum’s mark.
They kept in their own lead group and went out first, under WR pace by 10 miles with the cast comprising pace setters and other Kenyans Philemon Kimaiyo, Amos Kipruto and Timothy Kiplagat.
After the halfway mark, Korir who won the Boston Marathon in Massachusetts, USA in April, and Kiplimo, broke away and held a 10-second gap over the rest of the group.
Thereafter, Kiplimo just charged forward by calmly exuding his customary poetry on the road and left Korir for dead, thereby establishing a 12-second lead over Korir over the next 5km up to 30km. His pace at that stage was projected for a 2:00:16 finish.
And for that entire period, even if he kept looking back in check of a potential challenger, Kiplimo was purely against the clock for the WR. He breezed past the 35km mark in 1:39:53 and still under the WR pace – a predicted finish of 2:00:30.
His legs however gave way in the closing stages but neither in the race could deny him the victory, a history feat making him the first Ugandan to ever win a World Marathon Major (WMM).
The WMMs are seven: Tokyo, Boston, London, Berlin, Sydney, Chicago and New York. A pile of Ugandans including 2012 Olympic champion Stephen Kiprotich, Jackson Kiprop, Stephen Kissa, Victor Kiplangat and Joshua Cheptegei have run there before but none had taken the ribbons away at the finish-line.
In history, no man has ever held both WRs over the 21km and 42km at the same time and Kiplimo lived within that space for the greater part of yesterday. ‘Yes, almost,’ added Chelangat about the WR.
Put simply, it is only a matter of time before Kiplimo shatters that mark, barring of course, any unforeseen circumstances. The courses in London, Berlin and Chicago suite that debate.
2025 CHICAGO MARATHON
MEN’S 42KM RACE RESULT
1 Jacob Kiplimo (UGA) 2:02:23
2 Amos Kipruto (KEN) 2:03:54
3 Alex Masai (KEN) 2:04:37
4 Conner Mantz (USA) 2:04:43
5 Huseydin Mohamed Esa (ETH) 2:04:50
KIPLIMO IN 2025
Oct 12, 2025: Chicago Marathon (1st, 2:02:23)
Aug 27, 2025: Buenos Aires 21K (1st, 58:29)
Apr 27, 2025: London Marathon (2nd, 2:03:37)
Feb 16, 2025: Barcelona Half-Marathon (1st, 56:42)
FASTEST MARATHONERS – BEST TIME
2:00:35 by Kelvin Kiptum (KEN) at Chicago Marathon on Oct 8, 2023
2:01:09 by Eliud Kipchoge (KEN) at Berlin Marathon on Sep 22, 2022
2:01:41 by Kenenisa Bekele (ETH) at Berlin Marathon on Sept 29, 2019
2:01:48 by Sisay Lemma (ETH) at Valencia Marathon on Dec 3, 2023
2:02:05 by Sabastian Sawe (KEN) at Valencia Marathon on Dec 1, 2024
2:02:16 by Benson Kipruto (KEN) at Tokyo Marathon on Mar 3, 2024
2:02:23 by Jacob Kiplimo (UGA) at Chicago Marathon on Oct 12, 2025