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2015 World Championships in Athletics – Women's marathon

Women's marathon
at the 2015 World Championships
Venue Beijing National Stadium
Dates 30 August
Competitors 65 from 38 nations
Winning time 2:27:39
Medalists
gold medal     Ethiopia
silver medal     Kenya
bronze medal     Bahrain
← 2013
2017 →
Events at the
2015 World Championships
Athletics pictogram.svg
Track events
100 m   men   women
200 m men women
400 m men women
800 m men women
1500 m men women
5000 m men women
10,000 m men women
100 m hurdles women
110 m hurdles men
400 m hurdles men women
3000 m
steeplechase
men women
4 × 100 m relay men women
4 × 400 m relay men women
Road events
Marathon men women
20 km walk men women
50 km walk men
Field events
High jump men women
Pole vault men women
Long jump men women
Triple jump men women
Shot put men women
Discus throw men women
Hammer throw men women
Javelin throw men women
Combined events
Heptathlon women
Decathlon men
Demonstration events
Masters 400 m women
Masters 800 m men

The women's marathon at the 2015 World Championships in Athletics was held at the Beijing National Stadium on 30 August.

Under overcast skies (is that overcast in Beijing?) the race quickly formed two large packs of about 20 runners. For the next 25K, the lead pack remained about the same size with some runners bridging the gap in time for others to fall off the pace. Between 25K and 30K, the pack dropped to a dozen runners. Just after 31K, defending champion Edna Kiplagat accelerated. In the next 4K, the lead pack cut in half, the remaining athletes were three Kenyans, two Ethiopians and Eunice Kirwa wearing a Bahrain uniform, from Kenya. London Marathon champion Tigist Tufa was the first to fall back, then Kiplagat began to lose contact. But the four person pack remained tougher into the stadium. Four athletes to sprint it out on the track for three medals after running 26 miles. Mare Dibaba (no relation to the other famous Dibaba sisters) led the group toward the tunnel. As they started to speed up, Jemima Sumgong did not have another gear. Kirwa was perfectly positioned to strike but instead Helah Kiprop launched the attack from the back after looking like she was ready to drop off, long striding behind the diminutive Dibaba. 60 metres before the finish they were almost even, but Dibaba would not give that last few inches. Then Dibaba sped away to cross the line with almost 7 metres gap. The times had a second between first and second, a four-second gap amongst the medalists and a 7-second gap back to fourth place. On every count, the closest Marathon finish in World Championship history.

It was four Kenyan born athletes in places 2-5, Ethiopia and Japan placed three each in the top 14 places.

Prior to the competition, the records were as follows:

All times are local times (UTC+8)

The race was started at 07:30.


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