The Best Running Performances of 2024

We’ve seen many incredible running performances in 2024, including world records, Olympic records, brilliant runs on and off the track, and epic endurance runs. 

Here are some of the best running performances of 2024. 

THE RUNNING WORLD RECORDS BROKEN IN 2024

• Ruth Chepngetich broke the women’s marathon world record at the Chicago Marathon. She became the first woman to run under 2:10 with her time of 2:09:56, which was almost two minutes quicker than the previous record
• Yomif Kejelcha lowered the men’s half marathon record by one-second when he ran 57:30 at the Valencia Half Marathon
• Eliot Giles ran 3:51.3 in the men’s road mile to set a new world record. It was the second time the road mile had been lowered in 2024 following Emmanuel Wanyonyi 3:54.6 earlier in 2024
• Jessica Hull ran 5:19.70 to break the women’s 2000m record
• Faith Kipyegon bettered her own women’s 1500m world record when she ran 3:49.04
• Agnes Ngetich broke the women’s 10km world record, running 28:46 around the streets of Valencia
• Beatrice Chebet broke the women’s 10,000m world record, running 28:54.14 around the track at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon
• Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone ran her sixth world record in the women’s 400m hurdles. Her 50.37 during the Paris Olympic Games is getting closer and closer to breaking the 50-second mark
• The Backyard Ultra world record was jointly broken by three Belgian teammates, Merijn Geerts, Ivo Steyaert and Frank Gielen, during the Backyard Ultra World Team Championship in October. They each ran 458 miles in 110 hours, beating the previous record by just over eight miles
• Jakob Ingebrigtsen ran 7:17.55 in the men’s 3,000m. That inspired us to see if we could beat his time as a relay. See how we did below! (Spoiler: it’s VERY fast!)

THE BEST RUNNING PERFORMANCES OF 2024

PARIS BECOMES BARKLEY’S BEST

Jasmine Paris became the first woman to complete the Barkley Marathons, finishing 99-seconds – less than one second per mile! – inside the race’s cut-off time. The feat was celebrated as one of the greatest running performances we’ve ever seen.  

SUPER SIFAN

Sifan Hassan had arguably the greatest Olympic Games of any female athlete, ever. The Dutch runner decided to compete in three events: 5000m, 10,000m and the marathon. Having won two bronze medals on the track, she ran an Olympic record in the marathon to win gold. It was an unprecedented schedule, with the 10,000m finishing just 36 hours before the start of the marathon, and it was more than 38 miles (62km) of racing during the Games.

REMARKABLE RUTH

Ruth Chepngetich running 2:09:56 at the Chicago Marathon was a watershed moment for women’s running as she became the first to run under 2:10. It was a sensational performance, taking almost two minutes of the previous record, and it’s a time that may stand for many years. 

SPEEDY SAWE

The fastest men’s marathon of the year was run by Sebastian Sawe. In what was his first marathon, he ran the second-fastest debut and the fifth-fastest marathon of all time with his 2:02:05 at the Valencia Marathon. Over 5,200 people run sub-three hours in that 2024 Valencia Marathon, which is the most to ever run that fast in the same race. 

HOCKER HEROICS

The men’s 1500m and mile gave us some of the most exciting races of the year, with four top contenders fighting for three medals: Jakob Ingebrigtsen, Josh Kerr, Cole Hocker and Yared Nuguse. In the race that mattered the most, Cole Hocker was able to win the Olympic gold in Paris, running a new Olympic record, with Kerr and Nuguse winning silver and bronze, and Ingebrigtsen left without a medal. All four men ran inside the previous Olympic record. 

Ingebrigtsen fought back to win Olympic gold in the men’s 5000m, then later ran a world record of 7:17.55 in the 3000m. 

THE FASTEST RACE IN HISTORY

The men’s Olympic 100m final was the closest and most exciting race of the Paris Olympic Games. In the end it took a photo finish to determine that Noah Lyles was just five-thousandths of a second (0.005!) ahead of Kishane Thompson – the tiniest margin for a life-changing triumph. All eight finalists finished under 10 seconds (without a wind assist) for the first time in history.

CHEBET & KIPYEGON CONTINUE DOMINANCE

Beatrice Chebet broke the 10,000m world record in May and took that form to Paris where she won Olympic gold in the 5000m and the 10,000m, so she’s enjoyed a year of superb running performances. 

Faith Kipyegon continued her remarkable consistency over 1500m, breaking the world record and Olympic record, and remaining unbeaten at her distance for three years. 

KEELY’S GOLDEN YEAR

Keely Hodgkinson won Olympic gold in the 800m, and that would lead her to winning the BBC Sports Personality of the Year for 2024. She was the first British female to win an Olympic gold in athletics since Jessica Ennis-Hill in 2012. 

MOUNTAIN GOATS

The 2024 UTMB World Series Final saw a new women’s course record by Katie Schide who ran 22:09:31 in the 176km (109 mile) race. Making her achievement even more impressive, she won Western States nine weeks earlier, becoming only the fourth person to ever complete the double of Western States and UTMB. 

The men’s winner at UTMB was a surprise to most. France’s Vincent Bouillard, who is an engineer working for HOKA and not a professional runner, won in 19:54:23. He’s only the third person to ever run UTMB in under 20 hours. 

BACKYARD BRILLIANCE

Merijn Geerts, Ivo Steyaert and Frank Gielen all set a new Backyard Ultra world record during the Backyard Ultra World Team Championship in October. The format requires participants to run 4.166 miles on the hour, every hour, until there’s only one person left. They managed to do that for 110 hours, and over 458 miles, beating the previous record by just over eight miles. The three teammates jointly agreed to finish together after 110 laps. 

POWER OF THE IRISH

Sophie Power became the fastest woman to run the length of Ireland. She completed the almost-350 mile run in three days, 12 hours and eight minutes. She told us how she wants the run to help inspire others.

DEO KATO RUNS FROM CAPE TOWN TO LONDON

The greatest endurance run of 2024 is undoubtedly Deo Kato, who is close to completing his extraordinary run from Cape Town to London. He will be the first person to ever run that distance and he’s doing it to raise awareness of human migration, both through history and with displaced people today. Deo faced imprisonment in South Sudan and we caught up with him as he was making his way across Europe. He’ll finish his run in London on 22 December. 

THE HARDEST GEEZER RUNS THE LENGTH OF AFRICA

Russ Cook, known as the Hardest Geezer, ran the length of Africa between April 2023 and April 2024, completing the 10,000 mile journey from the southernmost point of Africa, Cape Agulhas in South Africa, to the northernmost point in Ras Angela, Tunisia.

THE RUNNING CHANNEL’S TOP PERFORMANCES

And now for some of our own best performances here at The Running Channel! 

Sarah ran a new personal best at the London Marathon in April.

Also in the marathon, Jess took on the Berlin Marathon in September with the aim of running under three hours. 

Tom set himself the goal of running a sub-60 minute 10km. Spoiler alert: This video shows how sometimes we don’t achieve the performance we want, but how we can come back from it and get our goal. It’s one of the most inspiring videos we’ve made in 2024. 

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What do you think was the best running performance of 2024? 

Lead image: Getty Images / Steph Chambers