Amos Kipruto won the 2026 Bank of America Chicago Marathon in 2:01:09, missing the course record by 34 seconds as defending champion Jacob Kiplimo cracked to fourth.
Picture by Dominick Gramarosso
For two straight years, Amos Kipruto crossed the finish line in Grant Park with no doubt about his place in the sport, and no title to show for it.
In 2024, you watched him take third. Last October, you watched him run even faster and still come up short, finishing a frustrating one minute and 31 seconds behind Jacob Kiplimo.
On Sunday, October 11, 2026, the pattern finally broke. Kipruto won the Bank of America Chicago Marathon, and he did it in the fastest time of his life.
He crossed the line in 2:01:09, a 30-second personal best, 1 minute and 47 seconds clear of second place, and just 34 seconds off the Chicago course record set by the late Kelvin Kiptum in 2023.
The men's race was built around the rematch everyone expected. Kiplimo arrived as the defending champion and the clear favorite, with a 2:00:28 personal best from London in April that ranked as the third-fastest marathon in history.
Kipruto arrived with his own weapon: a 2:01:39 personal best from the same London race, making him the sixth-fastest man in marathon history.
For long stretches, the two ran side by side.
The pace was honest, the group was thin, and neither man blinked through 30K.
Then, in the final miles, the race broke open completely. Kipruto surged, Kiplimo could not respond, and the Ugandan did not just lose the win, he fell all the way out of the podium.
"This really is a great day for Kipruto," American running coach Ed Eyestone said on the NBC Chicago broadcast as the Kenyan pulled clear.
The full men's top five:
• 1st: Amos Kipruto (KEN), 2:01:09
• 2nd: Tadese Bikila (ETH), 2:02:56
• 3rd: Milkesa Mengesha (ETH), 2:03:46
• 4th: Jacob Kiplimo (UGA), 2:04:18
• 5th: Boki Diriba (ETH), 2:05:01
The defending champion and half-marathon world record holder finished nearly three minutes slower than his London best, and watched three men break the tape ahead of him.
It was the biggest result of the day on the men's side, and the most unexpected drop for a reigning champion in recent Chicago memory.
The time itself is the story.
2:01:09 is a personal best for Kipruto by 30 seconds, and it is the third-fastest time ever run on the Chicago course, behind only Kiptum's 2:00:35 world record from 2023 and Kiplimo's own 2:02:23 from last year.
It is also one of the fastest marathon times in history, full stop. On world all-time lists, 2:01:09 slots into the top ten.
A win like that at 34 years old, more than four years after his last major title, is rarer than the record books usually allow for.
Most pre-race coverage treated this as Kiplimo's title to defend, with Kipruto as the strongest challenger on paper. The betting markets agreed.
And why not? Kiplimo had broken the half-marathon world record in Lisbon in March, won his third straight World Cross Country title in February, and arrived with the fastest personal best in the field.
Kipruto's head-to-head record against him coming in was not pretty. In their last two meetings before Sunday, Kiplimo had finished one place ahead each time, winning Chicago 2025 by 91 seconds and beating Kipruto to third place in London 2026.
Sunday did not just flip that record, it rewrote it. Kipruto beat Kiplimo by more than three minutes.
Picture by KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI via Getty Images
A marathon title at 34 after years of near-misses tends to loosen a runner, not tighten them.
Kipruto now has his second major, more than four years after his first.
He is also in form that most 34-year-olds will never touch. 2:01:09 is a time that would have won every single Chicago Marathon in history except two.
Chicago has become the stage where the sport's fastest performances keep being set. Kiptum's 2:00:35 from 2023 has been under attack every year since, with one of the most memorable Chicago performances in recent history coming on the women's side.
Kipruto's 2:01:09 slots directly into that lineage. The course record now has a new serious threat, and the question is less whether 2:00:35 falls, and more who takes it down next.
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A few things to carry out of this one.
First, the late-race move was decisive. Kipruto did not try to win the race in the first 30K, instead waiting to read Kiplimo's rhythm and then attacking at the one moment the defending champion could not respond.
Second, experience showed. This was Kipruto's third Chicago Marathon in three years, and he knew exactly which miles mattered.
Third, the age narrative is quietly being rewritten in the marathon. A 34-year-old just dropped a 24-year-old defending world-class champion by nearly three minutes.
Kipruto now has two major titles (London 2022, Chicago 2026) and multiple other podiums across the circuit.
For Kiplimo, finishing fourth on home turf of his best major is a bigger blow than runner-up would have been.
The half-marathon world record holder, the London 2026 third-place man, missed the podium of the race he was defending.
Expect Kipruto to pick his next race carefully. A win at this level often means a longer-than-usual rebuild, with Tokyo in March 2027 as a logical target.
Expect Kiplimo to come back angry. The half-marathon world record holder has unfinished business both with Kipruto and with the 2:00:35 course record that still has not been broken since Kiptum ran it in 2023.
And expect Chicago to keep doing what Chicago now does, which is produce the fastest and most dramatic results in the sport. The streets of Grant Park have become the main stage.
For now, the moment belongs to one man.
Third, second, then first, Amos Kipruto finally has his Chicago, and he has it in 2:01:09.
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