The global athletics governing body, World Athletics, has ratified the world records set earlier this year by Olympic marathon champion Peres Jepchirchir.

Kenya’s representative at the 2024 Olympic Jepchirchir rewrote the record book as she ran 2:16:16 to improve the women-only world marathon record by 45 seconds at the TCS London Marathon.

The field for the World Athletics Platinum Label race on 21 April was widely regarded as one of the deepest and highest-quality women’s fields ever assembled and no secret had been made of the fact that breaking Mary Keitany’s women-only world record of 2:17:01 was the big target.

Ultimately, Jepchirchir was the one to achieve it. Seven women had remained in the pack as they reached the half-way point in 1:07:04 the second-fastest half-way split ever recorded in London and a mark that put them on schedule to smash the record by almost three minutes.

Jepchirchir went on to win in 2:16:16, finishing seven seconds ahead of Tigist Assefa. Joyciline Jepkosgei was third (2:16:24) and Megertu Alemu fourth (2:16:34), making it the first marathon in which four women finished inside 2:17.

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