It’s officially official: Kelvin Kiptum is the marathon world record holder.

World Athletics announced on Tuesday that it has ratified Kiptum’s winning time of 2:00:35 from the Chicago Marathon on October 8 as the world record.

Kiptum’s time, the first under 2:01 on a record-eligible course and conditions, broke Eliud Kipchoge’s previous world record of 2:01:09 by 34 seconds. It also marked a 50-second personal best for the 24 year old.

Kiptum has now set his sights on becoming the first man to break the two-hour barrier in the marathon under legal conditions. He will make the attempt on April 14 at the Rotterdam Marathon.

Kiptum has run Rotterdam before, serving as a pacemaker in 2019. He had intended to make his professional debut there in 2022 but the place was derailed by injury. He wound up making his debut in Vienna later in the year, running 2:01:53. Kiptum improved his PB to 2:01:25 in winning the 2023 London Marathon.

"I’ll try at least to beat my world record here,” Kiptum told World Athletics in November. “I know I’m capable of doing that, if my preparation works out well and the conditions are OK. And in that case, I will get close to the two-hour barrier, so why not aim to break it? That might look ambitious, but I’m not afraid of setting this kind of goals. There’s no limit to human energy.”

In 2019, Kipchoge became the first man to ever run sub-2 when he clocked 1:59:40.2 as part of the INEOS 1:59 Challenge. 

The performance, while spectacularly inspiring, was not eligible for world record consideration because Kipchoge did not have any open competitors in the race; he benefited from a pace car beaming the projected tempo on the road with laser lights; was provided hydration by bicycle; and had a rotating phalanx of seven fresh pacers throughout the race.

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