Peres Jepchirchir (born 27 September 1993) is a Kenyan professional long-distance runner who competes mainly in

road running Road running is the sport of running on a measured course over an established road. This differs from track and field on a regular track and cross country running over natural terrain. These events are usually classified as long-distance ...

competitions. She won the gold medal in the women's marathon at the

2020 Tokyo Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the List of Olympic Games h ...

. Jepchirchir was the champion at the 2016 World Half Marathon Championships and again at the 2020 World Half Marathon Championships. Her best time for the

half marathon A half marathon is a road running event of —half the distance of a marathon. It is common for a half marathon event to be held concurrently with a marathon or a 5K race, using almost the same course with a late start, an early finish or shortcut ...

of 1:05:06, set on 10 February 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 Gdynia ( ; ; german: Gdingen (currently), (1939–1945); csb, Gdiniô, , , ) is a city in northern Poland and a seaport on the Baltic Sea coast. With a population of 243,918, it is the 12th-largest city in Poland and the second-largest in th ...

, Poland, which was an improvement on her own previous record.

Career

Jepchirchir ran track while at school and was spurred on by the achievements of Mary Keitany, who was a world half marathon champion at the time. She began to compete in road races in 2013, starting with two wins at

10K run 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. ...

s in South Africa, then a third-place finish at the Kisumu Marathon in her native Kenya, finishing the distance in 2:47:33 hours.Peres Chepchirchir
Association of Road Racing Statisticians. Retrieved on 26 March 2016. She turned to

cross country running Cross country running is a sport in which teams and individuals run a race on open-air courses over natural terrain such as dirt or grass. The course, typically long, may include surfaces of grass and earth, pass through woodlands and open cou ...

at the start of 2014 and managed to take second place to

Faith Kipyegon Faith Chepngetich Kipyegon (born 10 January 1994) is a Kenyan middle-distance runner specializing in the 1500 metres. A 2016 Rio Olympic and 2020 Tokyo Olympic champion with the Games record at the latter, she is the second woman in history t ...

at the Kenyan Cross Country Championships – her first significant finish at national level. Her talent was spotted by Gianni Demadonna's team and she began to earn invitations to high level European road races. She won three straight races in France in late 2014, winning the Le Lion Half Marathon (in a course record of 69:12 minutes), the

Marseille-Cassis Classique Internationale The Marseille-Cassis Classique Internationale is an annual half marathon which follows a course from Marseille to Cassis in France during the last weekend in October. It has the silver label of the IAAF Road Race Label Events and is thus among the ...

, then the Corrida de Houilles. She was narrowly runner-up to Janet Kisa at the end-of-year BOclassic 5K. She made her highest profile appearance yet at the 2015 London Marathon, but failed to build on her shorter distance achievements, as she could not finish the full marathon distance. However, she began to reach the peaks of road running in 10K and half marathon that year. Her best of 30:55 minutes at the

Prague Grand Prix The Prague Grand Prix is an annual running event which takes place in September in Prague, Czech Republic. It is a 10-kilometre race organised in the attractive surroundings of Prague city centre during evening twilight. The race was introduced in ...

was the second fastest globally for the season and one week later she set a course record of 67:17 minutes to win the Ústí nad Labem Half Marathon – a time which placed her seventh on the year's top lists.Jepchirchir shatters course record at Usti nad Labem Half Marathon
IAAF (12 September 2015). Retrieved on 2016-03-26. She also defended her title in Marseille in October. Jepchirchir set a new best of 66:39 minutes at the 2016

Ras Al Khaimah Half Marathon Ras Al Khaimah Half Marathon is an annual half marathon held in Ras Al Khaimah, United Arab Emirates. History The first event, in 2007, saw Samuel Wanjiru breaking the world record, but Wanjiru himself set a new world record only a month later in ...

. Despite the fast time, which moved her to 13th on the all-time lists, the strength in depth of the race left her in fourth some way behind winner Cynthia Cherotich Limo while six women ran quicker than 67 minutes (a first for the sport). This performance earned her a place on the Kenyan team for the 2016 IAAF World Half Marathon Championships. The five-woman team led out the start of the race, with Ethiopia's

Netsanet Gudeta Netsanet Gudeta Kebede (born 12 February 1991) is an Ethiopian long-distance runner who competes in road running and cross country running events. She was the bronze medallist at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships in 2015. She shared in t ...

and

Genet Yalew Genet Yalew Kassahun (born 31 December 1992) is an Ethiopian professional long-distance runner who competes in track, cross country and road running events. Her half marathon best of 66:26 minutes is the Ethiopian record and ranks her in the t ...

also in contention. As the race progressed, this was whittled down to a Kenyan trio of Jepchirchir, Limo and

Mary Wacera Ngugi Mary Wacera Ngugi (born 17 December 1988) is a Kenyan long-distance runner who competes in road running events. She holds personal bests of 66:29 minutes for the half marathon, 30:50 minutes for the 10K run, and 2:27:36 for the marathon. As a ju ...

, and this eventually resulted in a

sprint finish In sport, racing is a competition of speed, in which competitors try to complete a given task in the shortest amount of time. Typically this involves traversing some distance, but it can be any other task involving speed to reach a specific goa ...

between Limo and Jepchirchir. Despite having been among the least experienced and well-known of the Kenyan team, it was Jepchirchir who emerged as world champion, finishing the race in 67:31 minutes and leading the Kenyan women to the team title and a podium sweep with Limo and Ngugi. A course record came at the

Yangzhou Jianzhen International Half Marathon The Yangzhou Jianzhen International Half Marathon (Chinese language, Chinese: 扬州鉴真国际半程马拉松赛) is an annual road running competition over the half marathon distance which takes place in April in Yangzhou, People's Republic of ...

in April, with her run of 67:21 minutes. At the 2017

RAK Half Marathon Ras Al Khaimah Half Marathon is an annual half marathon held in Ras Al Khaimah, United Arab Emirates. History The first event, in 2007, saw Samuel Wanjiru breaking the world record, but Wanjiru himself set a new world record only a month later in ...

she broke two world records. She took three seconds off

Florence Kiplagat Florence Jebet Kiplagat (born 27 February, 1987) is a Kenyan professional long-distance runner. She is a two-time world champion, having won at the 2009 IAAF World Cross Country Championships and the 2010 IAAF World Half Marathon Championships ...

's half marathon record in 65:06 minutes and set the 20K world record at 61:40 minutes. Her position as the world's best was short-lived, however, as

Joyciline Jepkosgei Joyciline Jepkosgei (born 8 December 1993) is a Kenyan female long-distance runner who competes over distances from 10,000 metres to the marathon. She is the former half marathon world record holder in contests with mixed-gender fields with h ...

(third at the RAK race) broke both her world records the following month. In the

2020 Summer Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the 1 ...

, she won the gold medal in a time of 2:27.20, given to her by

Thomas Bach Thomas Bach (born 29 December 1953) is a German lawyer, former Olympic foil fencer and Olympic gold medalist, serving as the ninth and current president of the International Olympic Committee since 10 September 2013. He is also a former memb ...

. She won the 2021 New York City Marathon with a time of 2:22:39, becoming the first person to win the Olympic gold medal and the New York City Marathon in the same year. She won the 2022 Boston Marathon with a time of 2:21:02. Due to her hip injury, Jepchirchir had to miss the 2022 World Athletics Championships in Oregon.

International competitions

Road race wins

* Bangalore World 10K: 2016 * Corrida de Houilles 10K: 2014 * Durban 10K Cityrun: 2013 (2) *

20K: 2014, 2015 * Montbéliard-Belfort Le Lion Half Marathon: 2014 * Ottawa 10K: 2016 *

Portugal Half Marathon Luso Portugal Half Marathon or Luso Meia Maratona de Portugal is an annual half marathon contested every October in Lisbon, Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose ...

: 2019 *

10K: 2015 * Prague Half Marathon: 2020 *

: 2017 * Saitama International Marathon: 2019 * Ústí nad Labem Half Marathon: 2015,2016 *

Valencia Half Marathon The Valencia Half Marathon ( es, Medio Maratón de Valencia) is an annual half marathon road running event held in Valencia, Spain, since 1988. It is categorized as a Gold Label Road Race by World Athletics. The race is organised by the Valen ...

: 2016 *

Valencia Marathon The Valencia Marathon (also known as Marathon Valencia Trinidad Alfonso EDP for sponsorship reasons) is an annual marathon road running event hosted by Valencia, Spain since 1981. It is categorized as a Platinum Label Road Race by World Athletic ...

: 2020 *

: 2016

Personal bests

5K run The 5K run is a long-distance road running competition over a distance of . Also referred to as the 5K road race, 5 km, or simply 5K, it is the shortest of the most common road running distances. It is usually distinguished from the 5000 me ...

– 15:51 (

Bolzano Bolzano ( or ; german: Bozen, (formerly ); bar, Bozn; lld, Balsan or ) is the capital city of the province of South Tyrol in northern Italy. With a population of 108,245, Bolzano is also by far the largest city in South Tyrol and the third la ...

2014) *

– 30:55 (

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...

2015) *

Half marathon A half marathon is a road running event of —half the distance of a marathon. It is common for a half marathon event to be held concurrently with a marathon or a 5K race, using almost the same course with a late start, an early finish or shortcut ...

– 1:05:06 (

Ras Al Khaimah Ras Al Khaimah (RAK) ( ar, رَأْس ٱلْخَيْمَة, historically Julfar) is the largest city and capital of the Emirate of Ras Al Khaimah, United Arab Emirates. It is the sixth-largest city in UAE after Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Al Ain ...

2017) * Marathon – 2:17:16 (

Valencia Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the autonomous community of Valencia and the third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is also the capital of the province of the same name. The wider urban area al ...

2020)

References

External links

*
All Athletics profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jepchirchir, Peres Living people 1993 births Kenyan female long-distance runners Kenyan female marathon runners World Athletics Half Marathon Championships winners World record setters in athletics (track and field) Athletes (track and field) at the 2020 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 2020 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medalists in athletics (track and field) Olympic gold medalists for Kenya Olympic athletes of Kenya New York City Marathon female winners Boston Marathon female winners 21st-century Kenyan women 20th-century Kenyan women