By David Monti, @d9monti
(c) 2025 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved
(14-Aug) — Kenya’s John Korir, who is the reigning champion of both the Boston and Chicago Marathons, is headed back to Chicago on October 13th with the hope of retaining the title he won so audaciously last year. Korir, 28, blasted the second half in Chicago last year in a sizzling 60:25, clocking a personal best 2:02:44, the second-fastest winning time ever at the event. He is now the eighth-fastest man in history.
“I was excited,” Korir told reporters after last year’s race. “I knew I was in 2:02 shape.” He added: “I knew I wanted to close the season in a PB and I did it.”
For 2025 Korir will have to overcome a powerful elite field assembled by executive race director Carey Pinkowski. Five men with personal best times of 2:04:01 or better will challenge Korir, Pinkowski said today, including the rising Ugandan star Jacob Kiplimo who ran an excellent debut of 2:03:37 at last April’s TCS London Marathon. Korir is not fazed.
“I am confident that I will be able to defend my title at the 2025 Bank of America Chicago Marathon this October,” said Korir through a media release. “My training is going well, and I am focused on achieving another personal best time.”
Korir, who last month won the Utica Boilermaker 15-K and clinched the 2024/2025 Professional Road Running Organization title, used the same strategy to win Boston. In Chicago he ran 4:37 for the 20th mile and 14:01 from 30 to 35 km. In Boston, he ran 4:39 for the uphill 20th mile to put the race away.
“We did the same like Chicago,” Korir told reporters. “We repeated it for Boston.”
Kenya’s Timothy Kiplagat, second at last year’s Tokyo Marathon, is the second-fastest man in the field with a personal best of 2:02:55. Fellow Kenyans Amos Kipruto (2:03:13), who was third in Chicago last year, and Cybrian Kotut (2:03:22), who took third in Boston, will look to replace Korir atop the podium, as will two-time Olympic marathon medalist Bashir Abdi (2:03:36) of Belgium. Also in the field is the Kenyan veteran Geoffrey Kamworor, twice the TCS New York City Marathon champion.
Conner Mantz will lead the home-country charge. After running 2:05:08 at the Boston Marathon last April, Mantz is gearing up to break Khalid Khannouchi’s 23 year-old national record of 2:05:38. Veteran Galen Rupp, 39, will return to Chicago for the first time since 2023 when he finished eighth. He won the race in 2017 and is the last American to win in Chicago.
On the women’s side reigning race champion Ruth Chepngetich –who ran a ratified world record 2:09:56– will not return to defend her title (she has been provisionally suspended by the Athletics Integrity Unit for a possible doping violation). That leaves the door open for five African women –four Ethiopians and one Kenyan– who have run sub-2:20 during their careers. The fastest is Megertu Alemu, who finished fourth at the 2024 TCS London Marathon in a personal best 2:16:34 and ran nearly as fast (2:16:49) at the Valencia Marathon last December where she was the race champion. She was also third in Chicago in 2023 in 2:17:09.
“I look forward to returning to the Chicago Marathon to try and improve on my previous performance there,” said Alemu through a statement. “The course is very flat and fast; and with my good training this year; I feel that I am fit to run better this time in Chicago and move higher up on the podium. I look forward to the race and the energy that the city gives you.”
The other top women are Ethiopians Hawi Feysa (2:17:00 personal best), Bedatu Hirpa (2:18:27), and Haven Hailu Desse (2:19:17), and Kenyan Irine Cheptai (2:17:51).
The top Americans are Lindsay Flanagan (2:23:31 PB), Natosha Rogers (2:23:51), Gabi Rooker (2:24:29), and Olympian Dakotah Popehn (2:24:40). Popehn, who finished 11th at the Paris Olympic Marathon, ran her personal best in Chicago in 2023.
“I’m coming back with one goal: run even faster,” said Popehn, who will run for the American Cancer Society. “There’s no place like Chicago for chasing speed: the crowd, the course, the energy—it’s built for breakthroughs.”
The reigning champions of the men’s and women’s wheelchair divisions, Switzerland’s Catherine Debrunner and Marcel Hug, will return to defend their Bank of America Chicago Marathon titles. Debrunner will look to make it a three-peat after winning in 2023 and 2024, while Hug will chase his fourth consecutive and sixth overall Chicago victory.
“Last year’s victory at the Bank of America Chicago Marathon in a huge course record meant a lot to me,” said Debrunner, who pushed to a finish time of 1:36:12 last year.
The full elite field is below:
Professional Men –
John Korir, KEN, 2:02:44 (Chicago, 2024)
Timothy Kiplagat, KEN, 2:02:55 (Tokyo, 2024)
Amos Kipruto, KEN, 2:03:13 (Tokyo, 2023)
CyBrian Kotut, KEN, 2:03:22 (Berlin, 2024)
Bashir Abdi, BEL, 2:03:36 (Rotterdam, 2021)
Jacob Kiplimo, UGA, 2:03:37 (London, 2025)
Philemon Kiplimo, KEN, 2:04:01 (Hamburg, 2025)
Geoffrey Kamworor, KEN, 2:04:23 (London, 2023)
Huseydin Mohamed Esa, ETH, 2:04:39 (Chicago, 2024)
Conner Mantz, USA, 2:05:08 (Boston, 2025)
Daniel Ebenyo, KEN, 2:06:04 (Chicago, 2024)
Galen Rupp, USA, 2:06:07 (Prague, 2018)
Hiroto Inoue, JPN, 2:06:14 (Tokyo, 2025)
Zouhair Talbi, MAR, 2:06:39 (Houston, 2024)
Matt Richtman, USA, 2:07:56 (Los Angeles, 2025)
Ryan Ford, USA, 2:08:00 (Boston, 2025)
Rory Linkletter, CAN, 2:08:01 (Seville, 2024)
C.J. Albertson, USA, 2:08:17 (Chicago, 2024)
Hideyuki Tanaka, JPN, 2:09:27 (Tokyo, 2025)
Patricio Castillo, MEX, 2:10:40 (Seville, 2023)
Marc Scott, GBR, 2:11:19 (London, 2024)
Colin Mickow, USA, 2:11:22 (Chandler, 2020)
Kevin Salvano, USA, 2:11:26 (Chicago, 2023)
Nick Hauger, USA, 2:11:55 (Sacramento, 2024)
Robert Miranda, USA, 2:12:07 (Sacramento, 2024)
Afewerki Zeru, USA, 2:18:54 (Porto, 2023)
Casey Clinger, USA, Debut
Tai Dinger, USA, Debut
Professional Women:
Megertu Alemu, ETH, 2:16:34 (London, 2024)
Hawi Feysa, ETH, 2:17:00 (Tokyo, 2025)
Irine Cheptai, KEN, 2:17:51 (Chicago, 2024)
Bedatu Hirpa, ETH, 2:18:27 (Dubai, 2025)
Haven Hailu Desse, ETH, 2:19:17 (London, 2025)
Mary Ngugi-Cooper, KEN, 2:20:22 (London, 2022)
Calli Hauger-Thackery, GBR, 2:21:24 (Berlin, 2024)
Lindsay Flanagan, USA, 2:23:31 (Chicago, 2024)
Natosha Rogers, USA, 2:23:51 (Nagoya, 2025)
Florencia Borelli, ARG, 2:24:18 (Seville, 2024)
Gabi Rooker, USA, 2:24:29 (Chicago, 2024)
Dakotah Popehn, USA, 2:24:40 (Chicago, 2023)
Melody Julien, FRA, 2:25:01 (Valencia, 2023)
Philippa Bowden, GBR, 2:25:47 (Berlin, 2024)
Aubrey Frentheway, USA, 2:27:14 (Duluth, 2025)
Maggie Montoya, USA, 2:27:50 (Rotterdam, 2025)
Loice Chemnung, KEN, Debut
Ejgayehu Taye, ETH, Debut
Emily Venters, USA, Debut
Professional Wheelchair Men:
Marcel Hug, SUI, 1:17:47 (Oita, 2021) World Record
Aaron Pike, USA, 1:20:02 (Duluth, 2022)
Johnboy Smith, GBR, 1:20:05 (Duluth, 2022)
Hiroki Nishida, JPN, 1:20:28 (Boston, 2017)
Daniel Romanchuk, USA, 1:21:36 (Boston, 2019)
Rafael Botello Jimenez, ESP, 1:22:09 (Boston, 2017)
Jetze Plat, NED, 1:24:28 (Dubai, 2023)
Simon Lawson, GBR, 1:25:06 (Boston, 2017)
Brian Siemann, USA, 1:26:46 (Boston, 2017)
Geert Schipper, NED, 1:26:51 (London, 2025)
Evan Correll, USA, 1:27:19 (Duluth, 2022)
Jason Robinson, USA, 1:29:01 (Duluth, 2022)
Rob Smith, GBR, 1:55:51 (Dubai, 2017)
Ethan Burkhart, USA, 2:00:53 (Duluth, 2019)
Professional Wheelchair Women:
Susannah Scaroni, USA, 1:27:31 (Duluth, 2022)
Manuela Schär, SUI, 1:28:17 (Boston, 2017)
Tatyana McFadden, USA, 1:31:30 (Duluth, 2019)
Catherine Debrunner, SUI, 1:34:16 (Berlin, 2023) World Record
Eden Rainbow-Cooper, GBR, 1:35:11 (Boston, 2024)
Vanessa De Souza, BRA, 1:40:21 (Seville, 2020)
Jade Hall, GBR, 1:41:44 (Boston, 2017)
Hoda Elshorbagy, EGY, 1:58:38 (Chicago, 2023)
Hannah Dederick, USA, 2:02:23 (Chicago, 2022)
Rachel Cleaver, USA, 2:46:48 (Chicago, 2024)
PHOTO: John Korir celebrating after winning the 2024 Bank of America Chicago Marathon (photo by Jane Monti for Race Results Weekly)
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