Brigid Kosgei smashes women's marathon world record

Reuters - Kenyan Brigid Kosgei broke Paula Radcliffe's 16-year-old women's marathon world record but former Alberto Salazar coached athletes, including Mo Farah, were never a factor in the Chicago Marathon on Sunday (October 13). The 25-year-old Kosgei set a blistering pace from the start to run two hours, 14 minutes, four seconds and shatter Radcliffe's previous record of 2:15:25 which the Briton set in London in April 2003. "If a lady can prepare good, and they have no injury, they could reduce to even 2:12," said Kosgei, the defending Chicago champion who also won this year's London Marathon. Kosgei's record came a day after Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge became the first man to run a marathon in under two hours but the mark, in Vienna, will not count for record purposes. Ethiopians Ababel Yeshaneh and Gelete Burka finished more than six minutes behind Kosgei. Kenyan Lawrence Cherono sprinted past Ethiopian Dejene Debela to win the men's race in two hours, five minutes, 45 seconds but British defending champion Farah placed eighth in 2:09.58 and previous winner Galen Rupp failed to finish. The time was Farah's slowest in a marathon by more than a minute. He was not available for comment. Both Farah and Rupp were formerly coached by the now-banned Salazar as was American Jordan Hasay, one of the women's favourites who also did not finish. Rupp suffered a calf strain about the sixth mile and he was forced to drop out near the 23rd mile, his management company said in a statement. Hasay felt a sharp pain in her hamstring after two miles, stretched and tried to continue, but was unable to, the statement added. The race was the first for the three since Salazar was banned from the sport for four years by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) for "orchestrating and facilitating prohibited doping conduct". Salazar has said he plans to appeal against the ruling. Debela was a second behind Cherono and fellow Ethiopian Asefa Mengstu took third in 2:05:48.