Winning their divisions Sunday in the Chicago Marathon was a familiar feeling for women’s champion Hawi Feysa, women’s wheelchair titlist Catherine Debrunner and men’s wheelchair champ Marcel Hug.
But not for men’s winner Amos Kipruto.
Having finished third in 2024 and second in 2025, Kipruto hoped that trajectory would take him to the front Sunday. It did, and it resulted in a personal-best time of 2 hours, 1 minute, 9 seconds. That speed pushed Kipruto past defending champion Jacob Kiplimo, who finished fourth at 2:04:18 and was unable to become the first men’s repeat winner since Samuel Wanjiru pulled the double in 2009 and 2010.
Kipruto didn’t need to be reminded of his past performance in Chicago. Because of his familiarity with the course, he was optimistic last week he would move up to the first spot.
He proved that feeling was correct, adding the Chicago victory to the one he picked up in 2022 in London. Kipruto beat second-place finisher Tadese Bikila (2:02:56) by almost two minutes, giving him time to savor the victory and push for a personal best.
‘‘I was ready,’’ Kipruto said.
There was no doubting Feysa’s readiness, either.
Despite coming in as the defending champion, Feysa was somewhat overshadowed by the return of Brigid Kosgei, the 2018 and 2019 winner of the race. But Feysa and Sharon Lokedi pulled away from Kosgei, then Feysa separated from Lokedi to win the women’s race at 2:13:33 for a new personal best.
Lokedi came in second at 2:14:07, and Kosgei’s third-place time was 2:14:55. Through a translator, Feysa said the race was ‘‘hard-fought’’ in the latter stages but was confident she would win around the 35-kilometer mark.
‘‘It means everything to come here and win again,’’ Feysa said.
Debrunner added a little bit of history to her triumph. The 2023 and 2024 winner in Chicago, Debrunner set a world record with her time of 1:33:16. The result enabled her to continue her dominant 2026. She added the first-place medal to the ones she had earned earlier this year in Tokyo, London and Berlin.
The world-record time was somewhat surprising, given that Chicago is considered a technical wheelchair course because of its turns. The potholes city drivers know too well also can be a factor.
But none of that stopped Debrunner, who finished almost nine minutes ahead of second-place Tatyana McFadden (1:42:01).
‘‘[To break] world records, everything needs to be perfect, especially the weather, [which] plays a really big role,’’ Debrunner said. ‘‘It seems that today it all came together.’’
Hug has experienced that before in Chicago — and in a lot of other places.
Sunday was Hug’s fifth consecutive victory in Chicago and seventh overall. He set a course record of 1:21:34, breaking the mark of 1:22:37 he set in 2023. His victory added to a stocked trophy case that includes 10 titles in Berlin and eight in London.
‘‘Today was a great day for us, great conditions,’’ Hug said. ‘‘I’m really happy with my performance today. [It maybe] was one of the best performances of my career today.’’