Hellen Obiri watched the 2024 Chicago Marathon last month with mixed emotions. As her compatriot and friend Ruth Chepngetich passed the half-way mark in 64 minutes, the “impossible”, as she previously believed, was starting to unfold in front of her very eyes.
The Kenyan, 30, held it together superbly over the final 13.1 miles to break the previous world record by nearly two minutes, registering an astonishing time of two hours, nine minutes and 57 seconds. The 13th October, therefore, etched forever in the history books as the day women’s marathoning running changed, the 2:10 barrier broken and a world of possibilities now imagined.
