Kenya\’s Brigid Kosgei has become the fastest woman in history after breaking a long-standing record previously set by Briton Paula Radcliffe by a staggering eighty-one seconds.
Kosgei completed the Chicago marathon in two hours, fourteen minutes and four seconds, trimming a full one minute and twenty-one seconds off Radcliffe’s time which she set at the 2003 London Marathon.
Despite being a mother of twins and a school drop-out, Kosgei has managed to pull record breaking performances in a number of competitions. In September this year, she achieved the record for the fastest female half marathon with a time of one hour, four minutes and twenty-eight seconds at the Great North Run, in Newcastle, UK. She also set her first-ever world record in April, becoming the youngest winner of the Women\’s Marathon in London, crossing the finish line at the age of 25 years.
As a child, Kosgei had to jog ten kilometers to school to avoid being late for class. She is one of seven children raised by a single mother, in Elegyo-Marakwet county, a region in the Rift Valley of Kenya.
She started competing in middle distance events at school but had to drop out in her final year in January 2012 because her family could not afford her school fees.
This year has been a record-breaking year for the Kenyan who said she believes she “can do better and is determined to reduce her time.”
