Kenya's Sheila Chepkirui lived up to her expectations as she secured an emphatic victory in the Nagoya Marathon on Sunday, March 9, securing a hefty payout in the process.
The Kenyan gem proved too strong for her competitors as she crossed the finish line with an impressive time of 2:20:40 - a massive 19 seconds ahead of her closest competitor Sayaka Sato of Japan, who clocked a personal best of 2:20:59.
Not only did Chepkirui secure her name in the history books but she also earned the top cash prize in the highest-paying marathon globally.
The Nagoya Women's Marathon, which was launched in 2012, is extremely prestigious and was recently certified by Guinness World Records as the largest women's marathon in the world. It is also the only women's race globally with a World Athletics Platinum Label status.
As of 2022, the Nagoya Women's Marathon has offered the largest first-place prize money, with the overall winner bagging USD 250,000, which is roughly KSh32 million.
How it happened: The early stages of the Nagoya marathon were characterised by erratic pacing but by the halfway mark, Chepkirui had shown signs that she was gunning for victory.
Eunice Chumba, a Kenyan-born runner who represents Bahrain, was following closely, with a Japanese contingent featuring Sayaka Sato, Rika Kaseda, Natsuki Omori, and Mao Uesugi also in contention.
As the race persisted, however, some of the athletes dropped off one by one, leaving Chepkirui an opportunity to establish some distance between herself and her opponents.
The Kenyan eventually stretched out Chumba and Sato, who were embroiled in their own secondary battle before the latter pulled away to claim second place.
To put into perspective how impressive Chepkirui's victory was, the 34-year-old only made her marathon debut in 2022 with a 2:17:29 run in Valencia. Going into the Nagoya marathon, she was considered the fastest entrant for the race.
Notably, her win came just four months after she secured another unprecedented victory in the New York City marathon, edging out her Kenyan counterpart Hellen Obiri - who was heavily tipped to win the race.
For that race, Chepkirui and six other Kenyans (both men and women), also secured considerably large payouts as winners of the marathon received Ksh13 million (USD 100,000), while second-place finishers got Ksh7.7 million (USD 60,000). The second runners-up walk away with Ksh5.1 million (USD 40,000).
