Marathon Recap: Mosop Sets Course Record; Shobukhova Three-Peats

By Chuck Sudo in News on Oct 9, 2011 7:30PM

The streets are slowly coming back to normal along the Bank of America Chicago Marathon route this afternoon. The big stories out of today's running belong to Kenya's Moses Mosop and Russia's Liliya Shobukhova.

Shobukhova has dominated this race in recent years and today became the first woman to win three straight Chicago Marathons. Shobukhova ran the last half of thee course alone and finished the final mile with her trademark sprint, wearing knee-high socks, to a time of 2 hours, 18 minutes, 20 seconds.

Mosop, meanwhile, set a course record with his winning time of 2 hours, 5 minutes, 37 seconds. MoSop shaved four seconds off the previous record set two years ago by his late countryman Sammy Wanjiru. Wanjiru died after falling from a balcony in Kenya in May.

Mosop had been suffering from a left Achilles tendon injury but was able to slowly pull away from the elite pack over the course's latter stages. Both Mosop and Shobukhova earned $100,000 for winning.

Australia's Kurt Fearnley won the men's wheelchair division while Russian-born University of Illinois student Tatyana McFadden earned a spot on next year's American Paralympic team by winning the women's wheelchair division.