Updated October 14, 2019 18:02:57

Like any true competitor, Kenya's Brigid Kosgei does not plan to coast on her latest accomplishment, even if that happens to be running the fastest-ever women's marathon.

Hours after shattering Paula Radcliffe's 16-year-old world record running the Chicago Marathon in two hours 14 minutes and four seconds, the 25-year-old said she believes any number of competitors could beat her.

"If a lady can prepare good and they have no injury… they can reduce to 2:12 or one minute to 2:13," Kosgei told a news conference in Chicago.

But while she stopped short of pointing to a 2:10:00 marathon for herself, she made clear that her sole goal is getting even faster.

"I'm still focusing to reduce my time again — if it's possible," Kosgei said.

"If my body would be good [I could] reduce [my time a] little by little, slowly."

"I'm feeling good and I am happy because I was not expected to run like this," Kosgei said.

Kosgei's run came little more than 24 hours after fellow Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge became the first man to run the marathon in less than two hours, clocking 1:59:41 in Vienna.

Unlike Kipchoge's performance, however, Kosgei's mark was set in an official race on a record-eligible course.

Radcliffe first set a world record at Chicago in 2002 before besting that mark a year later in London.

"It was 17 years ago exactly today that I set the first world record here in Chicago," said Radcliffe, who attended Sunday's race.

"That was a special day for me today and it's a very special day for Brigid today."

Photo: Brigid Kosgei finished seven minutes clear of her nearest rival at the Chicago Marathon. (AP: Paul Beaty)

Kosgei set a fast early pace but slowed a bit after the halfway mark.

She was waving to the crowd as she approached the finish line, nearly seven minutes ahead of runners following her.

Ababel Yeshaneh and Gelete Burka, both of Ethiopia, finished second and third. Yeshaneh's time was 2:20:51 and Burka's was 2:20:55.

While Kosgei's year-to-year career improvement could hardly be described as slow, it has been steady.

In 2017 and 2018, she finished the Chicago Marathon in 2:20:22 and 2:18:35, respectively, after logging a year-end best time of 2:24:45 at Lisbon in 2016.

The 25-year-old arrived in Chicago as an overwhelming favourite, having won the race in 2018.

Last month she clinched the unofficial best women's half-marathon time of 1:04:28 at the Great North Run and earlier this year she became the youngest woman to ever win the London Marathon.

Her confidence showed at the start of the race, when she set an aggressive pace of 3:05.59 minutes per kilometre in the first 5km, causing commentators to fret that she had perhaps overextended herself.

"I was too fast because I wanted to leave the group and focus, said Kosgei. "I come here to run my own pace, I don't depend on someone."

Reuters/AP

Topics: sport, marathon, united-states, kenya

First posted October 14, 2019 09:11:26