(Reuters) – Olympic gold medallist Sifan Hassan denied Kenyan Ruth Chepngetich a third straight Chicago Marathon title on Sunday, winning her second-ever marathon in a scorching two hours 13 minutes and 44 seconds.
The Dutch middle-distance star won on her marathon debut in London this year and had no issues with the longer distance yet again as she produced the second-fastest women’s marathon time.
She broke the tape one minute and 53 seconds ahead of Chepngetich. Ethiopian Alemu Megertu took third in 2:17:09.
“I just love it,” Hassan said of the marathon grind. “When you’re finished you want to do it again.”
She picked up two medals at the World Athletics Championships in August – a silver in the 5,000 metres and bronze in the 1,500 – but showed no signs of fatigue in Chicago, as she and Chepngetich took the early lead.
She broke away from the Kenyan by the 30-kilometre mark and had established a more than 30-second lead with less than 10 kilometres to go.
Hassan powered through the final stretch and crumpled to the ground after breaking the tape.
“I’m very, very, very happy about my training,” she said. “I don’t know if six weeks was enough but I have trained so hard… a little bit too cold today and still I ran an amazing time. It’s incredible.”
Her time came two weeks after Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa smashed the women’s marathon world record in Berlin in 2:11:53.
Hassan’s stellar performance was overshadowed to some extent by the men’s race in which Kenyan Kelvin Kiptum shattered the world record in 2:00:35.
(Reporting by Amy Tennery in New York, editing by Ed Osmond)
