CHICAGO (AP) ? Kenya's Moses Mosop set a course record in winning the Chicago Marathon on Sunday and Russia's Liliya Shobukhova claimed the women's title to become the race's first three-peat champion.
Both runners had no trouble pulling away from the pack on a warm morning to claim their $100,000 prizes. Mosop earned another $50,000 for finishing in 2 hours, 5 minutes, 37 seconds and breaking Sammy Wanjiru's course mark by 4 seconds.
He easily beat countrymen Wesley Korir (2:06:15) and Bernard Kipyego (2:06:29), with Ethiopia's Bekana Daba (2:07:59) and American Ryan Hall (2:08:04) rounding out the top five.
Shobukhova also made it look easy in becoming the first runner ? male or female ? to three-peat in Chicago, clocking in at 2:18:20. She was about a minute off Paula Radcliffe's course mark of 2:17:18 set in 2002 and outclassed the rest of the field. Ejegayehu Dibaba of Ethiopia took second in 2:22:09 and Japan's Kayoko Fukushi third in 2:24:38.
Shobukhova is hoping to secure an Olympic berth and might have done just that with her performance. Her country's federation will select its team based on the two fastest times posted between Sept. 1 and the end of the year.
Mosop, meanwhile, was spectacular again after a string of impressive performances, raising his arms and pointing toward the crowd as he crossed the finish line at Grant Park.
He ran the second-fastest 26.2 miles in history in his debut at the Boston Marathon this year, but finished behind fellow Kenyan Geoffrey Mutai in 2:03:06 with a tailwind on a course that doesn't meet specifications for world records. He then set the world mark in the 30,000 meters at the Prefontaine Classic in June, but his Achilles issue limited his training during the summer.
Even so, Mosop was hoping to break the course record of 2:05:41 set by the late Wanjiru in 2009, when he won the first of two straight Chicago Marathons.
If Mosop's Achilles tendon was bothering him, he did a good job of hiding it.
He didn't flinch when Korir made a move to break from a five-man pack and briefly led through 18 miles. Mosop kept pace and quickly put him away.
There were 45,000 runners registered and 37,400 made the start on a day that seemed made for hanging out by the lake if not running 26.2 miles.
The race-time temperature was 64 degrees and expected to reach about 80 during the day, the fourth time in five years the weather was unusually warm, but race officials were confident they had the proper procedures in place to prevent and handle any emergencies.
A Michigan man with a heart condition died four years ago, but since then, organizers have improved communication between various agencies and the runners. They've also added more water distribution points and medical aid stations.
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