
Peres Jepchirchir is a Kenyan long-distance athlete who reaffirmed her status as one of the world's greatest marathon runners in 2024 with a record-breaking performance at the London Marathon on April 21.
She claimed victory in the women’s elite race, setting a women-only world record of 2:16:16. This remarkable feat shattered Mary Keitany's 2017 record by 45 seconds, highlighting her unmatched endurance and tactical prowess.
The London Marathon was particularly significant for Jepchirchir, as it marked her sixth win in her last seven marathons, further demonstrating her consistency and dominance in the sport.
Competing against a highly competitive field, she executed a calculated strategy, staying with the lead group for most of the race before unleashing a powerful sprint in the final kilometers to secure her historic victory.
This achievement also had broader implications for her career, securing Jepchirchir a spot in Kenya’s Olympic team for the Paris 2024 Games.
Despite having clinched the gold in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Jepchirchir lost in the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Having blasted into the limelight in 2014 when she came in second to Faith Kipyegon at the National Cross-Country Championships just a year after her debut, Jepchirchir has consistently gone on to break records and flourish in her athletics career.
In February 2017, she sped to the first world record of her career. Even more impressive is that she lowered the half marathon world record by seven seconds in Ras Al Khaimah in the United Arab Emirates, when she was a few weeks pregnant and gave birth to her daughter eight months later in October.