Chicago - Reigning Olympic and London Marathon champion Sammy Wanjiru of Kenya and Russia's Liliya Shobukhova captured Chicago Marathon titles on Sunday, the African star doing so in course record time.
Wanjiru made a triumphant US debut in 2hrs 5mins 41secs to defeat Moroccan runner-up Abderrahim Goumi by 23 seconds and shave a second off the old race mark set in 1999 by Morocco's Khalid Khannouchi.
It was the fourth triumph in five career marathons for Wanjiru, who turns 23 next month, and his third major triumph in a row after last August's gold medal effort in China and his London victory six months ago.
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Kenya's Vincent Kipruto, who set a Paris Marathon course record of 2:05.47 in just his second career marathon, was third in 2:06:08 with countryman Charles Munyeki fourth in 2:07:07.
Shobukhova took the women's crown in 2:25:55, surging ahead at the final water break to defeat German runner-up Irina Mikitenko, this year's London Marathon winner, by 36 seconds with Russian Lidya Grigoryeva third in 2:26:47.
Runners wore stocking caps and gloves as a field of 45,000 braved chilly conditions in the "Windy City" nine days after it lost out to Rio de Janeiro in a bid to host the 2016 Summer Olympics.
Wanjiru was 31 seconds off the personal best of 2:05:10 he set to win in April in London and 71 seconds off the world record set last year in Berlin by Ethiopia's Haile Gebrselassie.
An elite men's group of eight took the lead after 15 kilometers but near the mid-point the pack had thinned under a withering stride, four seconds under world record pace at 10 miles.
The midway lead was an all-Kenyan affair between Kipruto, Wanjiru and Charles Munyeki after the drop off of Kenyan pacemaker Patrick Ivuti, who led the stars to the halfway mark three seconds off world record pace at 1:02:01.
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