Return of the queen: Peres Jepchirchir lays down a marker Premium

Peres Jepchirchir dominates marathons, sets world records, and aims to defend her Olympic title in Paris.

Between 2019 and 2022, Peres Jepchirchir reigned supreme in the marathon world. 

Unbeaten over five races, she triumphed in Saitama (2019) and Valencia (2020) before going on a historic run. First, she claimed Olympic gold in Sapporo’s oppressive heat in August 2021. Three months later, she finished first at the New York City Marathon. And in 2022, she mastered the Boston Marathon’s challenging hills to win her third 26.2-miler in nine months.

But just as Jepchirchir looked as if she might build an undeniable case to be considered the greatest female marathon runner of all time, a hip injury derailed her journey. 

Forced to the sidelines, the Kenyan was not able to compete until the 2023 London Marathon. Ahead of the event, the question on every marathon fan’s lips was whether Jepchirchir could pick up where she left off. She very nearly did, coming in third in a tight finish, five seconds behind winner Sifan Hassan. It was her first-ever defeat in an international marathon, a turn of events that confounded her six-year-old daughter Natalia.

“When I was running the London Marathon, she came and asked me, ‘Why you come third place? Usually you are the winner!’” It was an understandable question, because Natalia had never seen her mother lose. “She heard people talking about me coming back from injury, then she said, ‘Mama you are [free] from injury now, you will be ok. Mama you will win!’”

Jepchirchir was “happy” with third “because I was able to train for only two months” — but the loss and her daughter’s words made her even more determined to conquer London at the next time of asking. And she did it in some style last weekend, beating a field considered one of the best ever assembled, with three of the four fastest women in history competing.

The 2024 London Marathon was run in an unseasonable chilly 7 degrees Celsius, with Jepchirchir wearing a black hat to keep warm. The temperature did not match the race pace, which was red-hot from the beginning, the lead pack eating up the first 5km in 15:44.