World champ Jepchirchir headlines Valencia Marathon
Sports
By
Stephen Rutto
| Dec 05, 2025
Kenya's Peres Jepchirchir crosses the line to win the women's race at the 2024 London Marathon, on April 21, 2024. [AFP]
This Sunday, a superfast field of women will be on a history-making mission at the 2025 Valencia Marathon in Spain.
Spearheaded by world and Olympic champion Peres Jepchirchir, the women’s battle for glory is expected to be one of the most thrilling contests in the race's history.
Jepchirchir, who is fresh from a world title in Tokyo in September, is chasing another title to be added to her already rich collection.
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As she headlines the race alongside 2021 London and 2019 New York City marathons winner Joyciline Jepkosgei, Jepchirchir and a strong cast of decorated global stars are taking on defending champion and former world record-holder Amane Beriso of Ethiopia in what is expected to fuel an attack on the course’s fastest mark.
The former world half marathon record holder says shattering a world or a course record in Valencia hasn’t been in the matrix.
“My preparation was smooth. I will be running my own race in Valencia and I don’t have any plans for a world record in Valencia,” Jepchirchir said before her departure to Valencia for the Sunday December 7 showdown.
However, for an athlete who has stunningly powered not just to an Olympic title in 2020 and a world gold medal in 2025 but having smashed the women-only world record in London last year, competing with Beriso and Jepkosgei among other bigwigs, the strong field is expected to push for fast times.
In 2021, barely three months after emerging an Olympic champion in Tokyo, Jepchirchir went ahead to win the New York City Marathon.
Last year, she took down legendary athlete Mary Keitany’s long-standing mark of 2:17:01.
Beriso, the 2023 world champion, set the Valencia course record in the 2022 edition.
Jepchirchir on the other hand will on Sunday be racing in a familiar territory, having powered to victory in Valencia in 2020, just as Covid-19 restrictions eased while compatriot Jepkosgei had bagged silver in the 2018 World Half Marathon Championships, there.
Her 2:17:16 achievement in 2020 was the second fastest that time.
Beriso’s success in Valencia in 2022 was followed by her world title in Budapest World show which was the most recent marathon victory in an international championship.
The 2:14:48 course record remains Beriso’s personal best. She went on to secure second place in the 2023 Boston Marathon and third in last year’s Tokyo Marathon, while she was fifth at both the Paris Olympics and this year’s Boston Marathon.
Jepkosgei ran 2:16:24 when finishing third in a London Marathon won by Jepchirchir in 2024 and was also runner-up in the UK capital this year. She was also second in Valencia in 2020.
The big three are facing a strong international lineup featuring Keira D’Amato of USA, who set the American record for the half marathon in 2023, her compatriot Emma Bates, Rose Harvey of Great Britain and Australian greats Jessica Stenson, Isobel Batt-Doyle, and Genevieve Gregson.
Ethiopia’s Fikrte Wereta and Great Britain’s Charlotte Purdue are also among the entries.