COMING TO AMERICA
The fastest age groupers on the planet are heading for Chicago. Meet the runners who could be world champions
WORDS Danny Coyle
ILLUSTRATION Neil Jamieson
he Windy City always provides a stage for fast running, for both the elite athletes hunting records or the masses behind them in search of a new personal best. Chicago’’s streets are a friend of those in search of speed.
They also provide a carnival of color and sound, rooted in the distinct and diverse neighbourhoods the course snakes its way through, with a flat profile and often optimal climate providing the chance to threaten your previous best performance.
This year, there’s an extra layer of motivation for 2,500 of the runners who will make the journey through the Second City in search of first place, with the prospect of becoming an Age Group World Champion.
Following two years being staged within the TCS London Marathon, The AbbottWMM Wanda Age Group World Championships makes its debut on American soil as part of the 45th running of this famous race.
Runners aged 40 and over, hailing from more than 100 countries, have taken up the challenge to run as world championship contenders after a 12-month qualifying campaign that spanned the entirety of 2022.
Over 200 events spread across six continents gave hopeful competitors the chance to earn a position in their age group, with the aim of finishing high enough in the standings to receive an invite.
Now, they will line up to do battle against each other to join the ranks of world champions who have been crowned in the previous two iterations.
The Age Group World Rankings have been in operation since 2018, with the first world championship originally scheduled for 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic had other ideas, of course, and it was not until the London Marathon in October 2021 when qualifiers could finally have their moment.
The race produced some stunning performances, from the scintillating 2:30:46 of Tommy Hughes of Ireland in the M60-64 category, to the battle royale in the F70-74 group between the USA’s decorated age grouper Jeannie Rice and the UK’s Yuko Gordon, a 1984 Olympic marathoner. Gordon took the spoils with 3:25:30.
Then there was the indefatigable Gerry Miller of Canada, who’s 5:10:24 secured him first place in the M80+ competition. Miller returned the following year to podium once again with a much faster 4:56:26.
When he received his third-place trophy from the great Eliud Kipchoge, it was hard to decipher who was most impressed. Gerry is slated to return for a third tilt at the title in October.
There are tales of inspiration everywhere you look in this ‘race within a race’, and the urge to defend titles won in London 2022 has driven some of the champions crowned on The Mall to pack their bags for the trip to Chicago in a bid to retain their status as world champions.
From returning winners to newcomers determined to make their mark on the world stage, the championship race promises to deliver another raft of amazing performances. Let’s meet some of the athletes bidding for world championship glory.
What are the AbbottWMM Age Group World Championships?
This is the competition to find the best age group runners on the planet. Every year, runners compete in hundreds of marathons around the world. In 2023, more than 350 marathons have partnered with Abbott World Marathon Majors to act as qualifying races for the 2024 AbbottWMM Wanda Age Group World Championships.
What does that mean?
Each of those events supplies AbbottWMM with their race results. Any athlete aged 40+ competing in one of those qualifying events will have their time added to the Age Group World Rankings. Each runner is ranked by time.
How do runners qualify for the world championships?
The highest-placed runners in the rankings at the end of the year will receive an invitation. In addition, there is an Automatic Qualifying Time for each age group in each gender. If an athlete runs this time, they instantly qualify for an invite.
Where is the 2024 world championship?
This will be announced soon.
For more information
F55-59
Larysa Getman, Ukraine
For many marathon runners, the victory is arriving at the start line, not the triumph in crossing the finish.
It will feel like that for Larysa Getman when she takes part in the 2023 AbbottWMM Age Group World Championships. The Ukrainian, from Kyiv, was unable to compete in 2021 due to COVID-19 travel restrictions and could not take part in 2022 as war continued to rage in her home country.
She qualified for Chicago, and hopes to be there to fly the Ukrainian flag despite the continuing conflict. She has certainly refused to let circumstances at home dilute her passion..
“I’ve been running 365 days a year for 17 years. Running is my religion,” she says, “The war could not break me and interrupt my daily training. For us Ukrainians life goes on, and participation in the World Championship is a grand event for me.”
Getman has already completed her Six Star journey when she ran Boston in 2019.
“I started in the Majors in my fifties,” she says. “Perhaps my experience will inspire someone. You can start running at any age. At 49, life is just beginning!”
Since the Russian invasion, Getman says she and her family have also done their part. Her husband participated in the battle for the liberation of Chernihiv region in 2022. “The war is not over for us,” she says. “Runners around the world, let’s unite and stop the war in Ukraine.”
M40-44
Faisal Shafi, Pakistan
Faisal Shafi will be Pakistan’s sole representative in the world championships in Chicago.
The 41-year-old from from Karachi will compete in the M40-44 category. He only began running in 2018 as a way to train for obstacle racing. “The long distance fascinated me, so I ran my first marathon in 2019 in Dubai,” he says.
Now, Chicago will not only be a chance to compete in a world championship, but also to claim his fourth AbbottWMM star as he continues his mission to become a Six Star Finisher. He has completed Berlin, London and New York City already. As well as his own running ambitions, Shafi is proud to be at the forefront of growing participation in the marathon by his fellow countrymen and women.
F60-64
Mary Slocum, Ireland,
defending champion
In 2022, Mary Slocum won her age group in London with a time of 3:13:26 to take the crown, and she will be lining up to defend it on October 8 in Chicago
It will be her first trip to the United States, and another chance to take inspiration from her ate husband, who encouraged her to see just how far she could take her running success before his death in 2017.
“He had always said to me I could’ve been really good if I’d started younger,” she says. “After he died I really only went to give it a go, but it was a huge help. I made a lot of new friends, and it was something to do at the weekend that kept me going. I’m a coach at the club now, I’m on the committee and I write club articles for the local paper. Sometimes I do too much! But it helped enormously, I’m proud of what I’ve achieved and I like to think he’d have been proud as well.”
M50-54,
Tom Van Ongeval, Belgium, defending champion
The cycling-obsessed nation of Belgium is usually feted more for its heroes on two-wheels than its runners.
Eddie Mercx’s five overall victories and 34 stage wins on the Tour de France cement cycling as the No.1 sport when it comes to feats of endurance and the Benelux country.
So it’s no surprise that it was in the saddle where reigning M45-49 champion Tom Van Ongeval found his love for long distance sport. As a younger man, he was logging 200km per weekend on the roads around his home town of Leuven.
Transitioning to the marathon with an engine built on the bike was a relatively easy switch – as a 2:47 debut during his student career demonstrated . But with family life taking precedence as ten years had passed without pursuing a distance for which he had an obvious talent.
When did you get back into marathon running?
“My wife said I should do something about my condition, so I wanted to run to get into shape. That was 2015. I started from scratch and the initial idea was to get close to 2:47 again at 45 years old. But anything sub-three would be a great achievement. And I failed. I ran 3:07.”
How did you get faster?
“I knew I could go below three hours, and I wanted to do things differently and train properly, because until then I wasn’t following a plan. A year later I ran 2:55 and then, in 2017, I was back down to 2:47. For me, that was great, the same as when I was 20 years old.”
Then the Age Group World Rankings began in 2018. Was that your next source of motivation?
“Yes. I was 45, I ran New York City and came fifth in my age group and my goal was to be at the first World Championship in 2020. In 2019 I came second in Chicago and thought I should be aiming for the podium in London. I finished fifth. Then my goal was set. Maybe I could become World Champion if I could improve a bit, especially going into next category. (moving into the 50-54 group.)”
How did the 2022 race go?
It went really smooth. I was in a small group and we caught the reigning champion, Jonathan Walton. I knew there must not have been too many people ahead of the world champion, so thought I would be on the podium, but you never know. My brother was also in London, and I saw him at 36km and he shouted to me I was first. Then I knew. I ran 2:25:38, which was also a Belgian national age group record.”
What are your hopes for the 2023 race in Chicago?
“They say it’s harder to defend a world title than it is to win it for the first time, so I feel a lot more pressure! I have seen who is around the top of the rankings, but I haven’t run a marathon this year so I’m not there.
Any further ambitions after the World Championships?
I would like to complete Tokyo for the Six Star Medal, and in my head I would like to win all the Majors in my age group, but that means I would have to re-do them all!
“They say it’s harder to defend a world title than it is to win it for the first time, so I feel a lot more pressure this year!”
F45-49
Mai Fujisawa, Japan,
defending champion
Flying the flag for Japan in Chicago will be the highly decorated endruance athlete Mai Fujisawa.
She began her marathon career in 1999 at the Honolulu Marathon, but since 2020, the 49-year-old has been cutting a swathe through the F45-49 age group, finishing first in the rankings in the last two editions and (at the time of publication) sitting third in the world in the 2023 rankings season.
Her efforts culminated in victory in the AbbottWMM Wanda Age Group World Championships in 2022 in London when she won the title with 2:41:40, giving her a cushion of almost six minutes to second place.
“I was very happy because it is not easy to win the world’s best title in any field. Running is part of life. Nothing beats the feeling of achieving a goal,” she said.
Fujisawa has also had success in ultra-marathons. Since 2008, she has competed in 10 consecutive 100km World Championships, achieving third place in 2018.
F65-69
Leslie Cohen, USA
Leslie Cohen was the inaugural world champion in 2021 and reached the third step on the podium a year later. The lawyer from Santa Monica, California, is mother to three daughters and began running marathons seriously in 2013.
You became a World Champion in 2021 in London. What did that mean to you?
It was really exciting to be the world champion in the inaugural event. I have to say I was shocked. It was a huge honor just to be selected. And we were selected in 2019 or early 2020 – before COVID – and then everything got delayed a couple of years. So at the time, we didn’t know if (or when) the event was going to happen. I knew there were very few people selected in my age group, and I didn’t know who my competition was. It turned out the competition was very serious. So it was incredibly thrilling to win.
“Running connects us even though we come from different places and have different backgrounds”
You made the podium in London again last year with third place. What are your goals for the Chicago championship this year?
I’m expecting the competition to be really intense in Chicago this year, so I’m mostly focusing on trying to run a course PR. I’ve done the Bank of America Chicago Marathon twice before. My second time was faster than my first. So for 2023, I would love to see a course PR for myself – I’m hoping for something sub-3:30.
What would you say running brings to your life?
Running opened up a whole other world of people that I wouldn’t have met otherwise. My running friends range in age from their 20s to their 80s and are from all over the world and from every walk of life.
Running is a great equalizer in that way. It’s also a great way to see the world. I have a several friends now that I met in Australia when I traveled there for the Gold Coast Marathon. When I went to Ireland on a family vacation several years ago, I reached out to the Dublin Running Club and set up a run with them. They were so welcoming – they picked me up at my hotel and gave me a ride back. Running connects us even though we come from different places and have different backgrounds and would have never met otherwise.
F80+
Mary Jo Brinkman, USA
In Fort Smith, Arkansas, they know Mary Jo Brinkman as The Running Lady.
“It’s because I’m still running at my age. It’s something I do that not everybody does.”
The 81-year-old has run five of the six Majors so far, with just Tokyo to go, but before that she has the chance to contest the title of world champion.
A time of 5:36:47 in Berlin last year punched her ticket back to the World Championships.
She had signed up to AbbottWMM.com to ensure she had all her existing stars in her account in the hope of earning a place in Tokyo eventually. It was then that she realised she had run fast enough in Berlin to earn a World Championship slot.
“I was thrilled, and very humbled, I’m training hard so I don’t finish last!”
There is little danger of that. Her time in Berlin last year would have put her on the second step of the podium in London. She wakes at 5.30 every morning to run before completing a gym session at the hospital where she still works.
She runs another two times a week in the evenings and fits in a long distance effort at the weekends.
“I am very competitive. You have to be competitive to run a marathon. I’ve kept trying to place (in her age group), and I enjoy that part of it. Running a marathon is 99% in your head. Training is very important, but you have to have the will to go on when feel like you can’t.”
M50-54
Wayne Spies, Australia
Wayne Spies is famed for his serial participation in South Africa’s iconic Comrades Marathon.
The 50-year-old completed his 11th in 2023 before turning his attention back to the 26.2-mile distance – a distance he is still getting faster over – to prepare for Chicago. He says he has unfinished business with the marathon, and it has been showing in his steady progression from a debut of 3:27 in 2011 to a new PB of 2:25:47 in last year’s Gold Coast Marathon, not far off Tom van Ongeval’s winning mark in London last year. He is in the same age group as the defending champion in Chicago. “I seem to come back strong after an ultra block of training, and I’ve been enjoying a progressive improvement each year. Hopefully I can eclipse that time in Chicago,” he says.
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