# 2015 World Championships in Athletics – Women's marathon

The women's marathon at the 2015 World Championships in Athletics was held at the Beijing National Stadium on 30 August. The winning margin was one second which as of 2024 is the only time the women's marathon has been won by less than three seconds at these championships.

## Summary

Under overcast skies the race quickly formed two large packs of about 20 runners. For the next 25K, the lead pack remained about the same size with some runners bridging the gap in time for others to fall off the pace. Between 25K and 30K, the pack dropped to a dozen runners. Just after 31K, defending champion Edna Kiplagat accelerated. In the next 4K, the lead pack cut in half, the remaining athletes were three Kenyans, two Ethiopians and Eunice Kirwa wearing a Bahrain uniform, from Kenya. London Marathon champion Tigist Tufa was the first to fall back, then Kiplagat began to lose contact. But the four person pack remained tougher into the stadium. Four athletes to sprint it out on the track for three medals after running 26 miles. Mare Dibaba (no relation to the other famous Dibaba sisters) led the group toward the tunnel. As they started to speed up, Jemima Sumgong did not have another gear. Kirwa was perfectly positioned to strike but instead Helah Kiprop launched the attack from the back after looking like she was ready to drop off, long striding behind the diminutive Dibaba. 60 metres before the finish they were almost even, but Dibaba would not give that last few inches. Then Dibaba sped away to cross the line with almost 7 metres gap. The times had a second between first and second, a four-second gap amongst the medalists and a 7-second gap back to fourth place. On every count, the closest Marathon finish in World Championship history.
It was four Kenyan born athletes in places 2–5, Ethiopia and Japan placed three each in the top 14 places.

## Records

Prior to the competition, the records were as follows:
| World record | Paula Radcliffe (GBR) | 2:15:25 | London, United Kingdom | 13 April 2003 |
| Championship record | Paula Radcliffe (GBR) | 2:20:57 | Helsinki, Finland | 14 August 2005 |
| World leading | Mare Dibaba (ETH) | 2:19.52 | Xiamen, China | 3 January 2015 |
| African record | Mary Jepkosgei Keitany (KEN) | 2:18:37 | London, United Kingdom | 22 April 2012 |
| Asian record | Mizuki Noguchi (JPN) | 2:19:12 | Berlin, Germany | 25 September 2005 |
| NACAC record | Deena Kastor (USA) | 2:19:36 | London, United Kingdom | 23 April 2006 |
| South American record | Inés Melchor (PER) | 2:26:40 | Berlin, Germany | 28 September 2014 |
| European record | Paula Radcliffe (GBR) | 2:15:25 | London, United Kingdom | 13 April 2003 |
| Oceanian record | Benita Willis (AUS) | 2:22:36 | Chicago, United States | 22 October 2006 |

## Qualification standards

* Time
* 2:44:00

## Schedule

| Date | Time | Round |
| 30 August 2015 | 07:30 | Final |
All times are local times (UTC+8)

## Results

The race was started at 07:30.
| KEY: | NR | National record | PB | Personal best | SB | Seasonal best |
| Rank | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| | Mare Dibaba | Ethiopia (ETH) | 2:27:35 | |
| | Helah Kiprop | Kenya (KEN) | 2:27:36 | |
| | Eunice Kirwa | Bahrain (BHR) | 2:27:39 | |
| 4 | Jemima Sumgong | Kenya (KEN) | 2:27:42 | |
| 5 | Edna Kiplagat | Kenya (KEN) | 2:28:18 | |
| 6 | Tigist Tufa | Ethiopia (ETH) | 2:29:12 | |
| 7 | Mai Ito | Japan (JPN) | 2:29:48 | |
| 8 | Tirfi Tsegaye | Ethiopia (ETH) | 2:30:54 | |
| 9 | Kim Hye-song | North Korea (PRK) | 2:30:59 | |
| 10 | Serena Burla | United States (USA) | 2:31:06 | SB |
| 11 | Rasa Drazdauskaitė | Lithuania (LTU) | 2:31:23 | SB |
| 12 | Filomena Costa | Portugal (POR) | 2:31:40 | |
| 13 | Sairi Maeda | Japan (JPN) | 2:31:46 | |
| 14 | Risa Shigetomo | Japan (JPN) | 2:32:37 | |
| 15 | Alina Prokopeva | Russia (RUS) | 2:32:44 | |
| 16 | Ding Changqin | China (CHN) | 2:33:04 | |
| 17 | Alessandra Aguilar | Spain (ESP) | 2:33:42 | |
| 18 | O. P. Jaisha | India (IND) | 2:34:43 | NR |
| 19 | Sudha Singh | India (IND) | 2:35:35 | PB |
| 20 | Visiline Jepkesho | Kenya (KEN) | 2:36:17 | |
| 21 | Sinead Diver | Australia (AUS) | 2:36:38 | SB |
| 22 | Katarína Berešová | Slovakia (SVK) | 2:37:24 | |
| 23 | Sarah Klein | Australia (AUS) | 2:37:58 | SB |
| 24 | Esther Erb | United States (USA) | 2:38:15 | SB |
| 25 | Lishan Dula | Bahrain (BHR) | 2:38:18 | |
| 26 | Clara Canchanya | Peru (PER) | 2:39:24 | |
| 27 | Liina Luik | Estonia (EST) | 2:39:42 | PB |
| 28 | Wang Xueqin | China (CHN) | 2:41:42 | |
| 29 | Anne-Mari Hyryläinen | Finland (FIN) | 2:41:59 | |
| 30 | Kim Seongeun | South Korea (KOR) | 2:42:14 | |
| 31 | Kateryna Karmanenko | Ukraine (UKR) | 2:43:12 | SB |
| 32 | Yiu Kit Ching | Hong Kong (HKG) | 2:43:28 | |
| 33 | Annelie Johansson | Sweden (SWE) | 2:43:42 | |
| 34 | Nebiat Habtemariam | Eritrea (ERI) | 2:44:42 | SB |
| 35 | Munkhzaya Bayartsogt | Mongolia (MGL) | 2:45:01 | |
| 36 | Iuliia Andreeva | Kyrgyzstan (KGZ) | 2:45:04 | |
| 37 | He Yinli | China (CHN) | 2:45:05 | |
| 38 | Lily Luik | Estonia (EST) | 2:45:22 | SB |
| 39 | Anita Kažemāka | Latvia (LAT) | 2:45:54 | SB |
| 40 | Gulzhanat Zhanatbek | Kazakhstan (KAZ) | 2:45:54 | |
| 41 | Yeum Go-eun | South Korea (KOR) | 2:46:46 | |
| 42 | Aster Tesfaye | Bahrain (BHR) | 2:46:54 | |
| 43 | Sultan Haydar | Turkey (TUR) | 2:47:11 | |
| 44 | Charlotte Karlsson | Sweden (SWE) | 2:47:40 | |
| 45 | Hsu Yu-fang | Chinese Taipei (TPE) | 2:48:01 | |
| 46 | Julia Degan | Australia (AUS) | 2:49:26 | SB |
| 47 | Roselaine Benites | Brazil (BRA) | 2:49:28 | |
| 48 | Louise Wiker | Sweden (SWE) | 2:49:57 | |
| 49 | Niluka Geethani Rajasekara | Sri Lanka (SRI) | 2:50:40 | |
| 50 | Mayada Al-Sayad | Palestine (PLE) | 2:53:39 | |
| 51 | Dailín Belmonte | Cuba (CUB) | 2:56:18 | SB |
| 52 | Hsieh Chien-ho | Chinese Taipei (TPE) | 2:58:25 | |
| | Souad Aït Salem | Algeria (ALG) | DNF | |
| | Hortensia Arzapalo | Peru (PER) | DNF | |
| | Michele Cristina das Chagas | Brazil (BRA) | DNF | |
| | Barkahoum Drici | Algeria (ALG) | DNF | |
| | Sitora Hamidova | Uzbekistan (UZB) | DNF | |
| | Kim Hye-gyong | North Korea (PRK) | DNF | |
| | Soumiya Labani | Morocco (MAR) | DNF | |
| | Heather Lieberg | United States (USA) | DNF | |
| | Luvsanlkhündegiin Otgonbayar | Mongolia (MGL) | DNF | |
| | Tanith Maxwell | South Africa (RSA) | DNF | |
| | Beata Naigambo | Namibia (NAM) | DNF | |
| | Irina Smolnikova | Kazakhstan (KAZ) | DNF | |
| | Paula Todoran | Romania (ROM) | DNF | |
| | Lalita Babar | India (IND) | DNS | |
| | Olena Popova | Ukraine (UKR) | DNS | |