On February 19, 2019, Kenyan Brigid Kosgei ran the Great North Run half marathon in the time of one hour, four minutes and 28 seconds. A non-legal world record at the time (downhill). During this race, she put the athletics world on notice that she was in world-class form.

Seven months later, during the Chicago Marathon, she broke Paula Radcliffe‘s long-standing world record of 2:15:25 with her 2:14:04 performance. Since then, the world record has been improved to 2:11:53 by Ethiopian Tigist Assefa.

Kosgei again, has put the athletics world on notice that she is in top form. The 30-year-old clocked a 1:05:51 in Lisbon on Sunday. Not nearly as good as her Great North Run or her 2020 Ras Al Khaimah half marathon run of 1:04:49 in February 2020 (both not legal) but her performance can be ratified. Also, she was using the Lisbon Half Marathon in her training toward racing the London Marathon on April 21. Therefore, it can be assumed she may have run faster ā€” Kosgei likely has a heavy training load in her legs.

She won by over three minutes, after turning up the pace after the halfway point.

“I’m feeling very happy because I came with my kids. They celebrated with me when I won the race. They were really, really happy for what I did,” she said.

“This was a preparation for London Marathon next month.ā€

Kosgei has won nine of 15 marathons that she has entered. She finished second four times including in the hot Tokyo Olympic race that took place in Sapporo Japan in 2021. She also finished second in London, Chicago and Lisbon. Kosgei has finished sub-2:20 in six of her previous seven marathons.

The three fastest performances of all time are 2:14:04 by Kosgei during the 2019 Chicago Marathon, 2:13:44 for the Netherlands’s Sifan Hassan in Chicago in 2023 and 2:11:53 by Assefa in Berlin in 2023.

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