Two times Los Angeles marathon champion John Korir hopes to improve on his personal best and finish on the podium in the October 9 Chicago Marathon.
Korir won the Los Angeles Marathon title in 2:09.09, an improvement of his previous personal best of 2:12.48 posted at the same venue the previous year.
Edwin Kimutai was second in 2:10.44, a repeat of the 2021 edition as Ethiopian Bekele Berga completed the podium in 2:15.11.
“My target is to improve on my time as well as finish on the podium. With my 2:09.09 personal best, I want to run a better race,” said Korir.
Korir, the young brother of former Los Angeles Marathon champion Wesley Korir, will face off with defending champion Benson Kipruto and Erick Kiptanui, who recently missed to compete at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham after his name was wrongly entered into the system.
“This will be my first time competing in Chicago and I am happy because this has always been my dream. When I won the Los Angeles Marathon early this year, I felt I needed a new challenge and that is how I ended up with Chicago,” he said.
Korir said he is on a mission to lower his time on the Chicago course, just like his predecessors have done.
“I want to run 2:05 in Chicago. It has always been my dream and I hope that dream will come to pass,” he said.
He said he has been busy training and was not keen on political campaigns despite his brother Wesley contesting to reclaim the Cherangany Member of the parliamentary seat.
“I have been training hard with many marathons ahead of me and I avoided engaging in campaigns at all costs,” said Korir.
In the women's race, former world marathon champion Ruth Chepng’etich, Celestine Chepchirchir and Vivian Kiplagat will battle it out.
