In Sunday’s Chicago Marathon, Emily Sisson makes his comeback, almost three years after the disappointment of the Olympic trials. Conner Mantz makes one of the most anticipated US men’s 26.2-mile race debuts.
It’s not the norm, but an American will be one of the standout runners in both elite men’s and women’s races in a major marathon. Peacock airs live coverage at 8 a.m. ET.
Sisson, 30, begins his first mass marathon since dropping out of the Olympic trials on February 29, 2020, with his legs “destroyed” on the hilly course in Atlanta where he started as the likely favorite. He ran the New York City Virtual Marathon later in 2020, but it was solo (and not in New York City). His 2:38:00 is not recorded in his official results in his world athletics biography.
Since then, Sisson won the Olympic 10,000 m track and was the top American in Tokyo in 10th place. He returned to the roads, winning national titles in the 15 km and the half marathon and breaking the American record in the latter.
Sisson entered the elite group of American marathoners in 2019, when she ran the second-fastest debut marathon in U.S. history, 2:23:08 on a windy day in London, where the initial pace was slow.
At the time, it was the 12th best US performance of all time. In the last two years, Keira D’Amato37 i Sara room, 39, combined to run seven fastest marathons. In Chicago, a flat course that produced a world record three years ago, Sisson can answer them and perhaps close in on D’Amato’s American record of 2:19:12.
“I expect sub-2:20,” coach Ray Treacy he said, according to LetsRun.com. “With the [super] shoes and the training behind it, I think that’s it [worth] at least three minutes.”
Sisson is less likely to be able to fight for victory on Sunday given the presence of the Kenyan Ruth Chepngetich, the 2019 world champion and defending champion in the Windy City. The 28-year-old mother is the fifth fastest woman ever with a personal best of 2:17:08. And Ethiopian Ruti Agaa podium in Berlin, New York and Tokyo with a best time of 2:18:34, although he has a marathon finish since the pandemic (a seventh place).
Like Sisson, Mantz has shown strong recent form in road races. The US men’s marathon debut record of 2:07:56 (Leonard Korir) is in play. If he can break that, Mantz will be in the top five fastest US marathoners in history.
Rarely has a male U.S. distance runner accomplished as much as Mantz did in the marathon at such a young age (25). At BYU, he won NCAA cross country titles in 2020 and 2021 and finished fifth in the Olympic 10,000m, then turned pro and won the US half-marathon championships last December .
“If everything goes according to plan, I think sub-2:08 is realistic,” Mantz said in a video interview with Citius Mag last month. “If everything goes perfect on the day, I think sub-2:07, that’s a big goal.”
The men’s field doesn’t have the singular star power of Chepngetich, but a large group of East Africans with personal bests around 2:05. The highlight: the reigning champion Seifu Tura from Ethiopia and winner of the 2021 Boston Marathon Benson Kipruto from Kenya.
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