Valencia Marathon 2025: John Korir and Joyciline Jepkosgei take victories, Olympic triathlon champ Alex Yee 7th in men’s race

There was double joy for Kenyan athletes on Sunday (7 December) at the 2025 Valencia Marathon as John Korir claimed his second win of the season in the men’s race before Joyciline Jepkosgei set a new world lead to win the women’s race.

Korir, the Boston Marathon winner earlier this year and last year’s Chicago Marathon champion, was looking to bounce back from a disappointing outing in Chicago in October when he stepped off the road.

There was no such occurrence today as he broke clear of the lead group just after 25km in and pushed to the end, recording a negative split (faster second half of the race) to win in 2:02:25, a new personal best by 19 seconds.

“People are saying the Korir name is going down but I have come here and proved to them that Korir is still there,” he said after the race. “I’ve closed my year with a PB. I enjoy myself here in Valencia.”

In second place was World Championships silver medallist Amanal Petros representing Germany, who has enjoyed a strong season. Petros broke the German national record by 53 seconds, clocking 2:04:03.

“It’s not easy sometimes to say I’m proud of me but finally I can say I’m proud of me,” he said. “The season was so long, I started last year 3 December to train for all the competitions. I’m so happy that I made it. The main goal was to break my national record and I made it.”

Norway also saw their athletics record books re-written by third-place finisher Awet Kibrab, who took 1:24 off the national record to finish in 2:04:24. Japan’s Osako Suguru in fourth also set a new national best mark by a second, finishing in 2:04:55.

Meanwhile, Olympic triathlon champion Alex Yee became the second-fastest British marathoner with a 2:06:38. Yee, who finished seventh, overtook Emile Cairess on the all-time GB leaderboard and now sits behind only Mo Farah.