There is no time to rest for Olympic marathon champion Peres Jepchirchir and world cross country champion Beatrice Chebet after their exploits at the World Road Running Championships on Sunday in Riga, Latvia.
Peres Jepchirchir, the 2021 New York Marathon champion, retained her world half marathon title to complete a hat-trick, while Chebet won the five-kilometers title, an event held for the first time at such a forum.
Peres Jepchirchir now says she hopes to finish the season strongly at the New York Marathon on November 5, before turning his efforts to preparing for the 2024 Paris Olympics, where he will defend her title.
Beatrice Chebet, the world bronze medalist in the 5,000m, said she hopes to defend her world cross country title in March in Belgrade, Serbia, before planning a possible Olympic debut.
“I’ve come back from a disappointing injury season”, said Peres Jepchirchir, who finished third in the London Marathon in April after recovering from a muscle injury.
Peres Jepchirchir is a Kenyan professional long-distance runner who competes mainly in road running competitions. She won the gold medal in the women’s marathon at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Peres Jepchirchir was the champion at the 2016 and 2020 World Half Marathon Championships. She claimed victories at the 2021 New York City and 2022 Boston Marathon and finished third at the 2023 London Marathon. Her best time for the half marathon of 1:05:06 hours, set on 0 February 10, 2017 in UAE, is a former half marathon world record. She holds the women’s only half marathon world record of 1:05:16 set at the 2020 World Half Marathon Championships in Gdynia, Poland, which was an improvement on her own previous record.
