What Running Records Will Be Broken In 2025?

In 2024, we saw new running world records from the track to the marathon, but will we see more running records broken in 2025? 

With a busy season of track running, including the Diamond League, the brand new Grand Slam Track, plus the season finale of the World Championships in September, there’s going to be a lot of racing to look forward to, while in road running, we’ve got a full calendar of races from the mile to the Marathon Majors.

So what running world records might be broken in 2025?

Here are all the running records broken in 2024 and here’s a full list of running world records from the 100m to the marathon. 

MEN’S & WOMEN’S SPRINTS: UNLIKELY

If you’ve watched the Netflix series Sprint then you’ll know all about the biggest rivalries between the world’s best sprinters, but will that lead to world records over 100m or 200m?

Probably not.

The times currently being run don’t seem to be challenging the world records… yet. But we’ll still be watching the amazing races that we expect to see all season.

WOMEN’S 800m: MAYBE

The big question is can Keely Hodgkinson break the 800m world record?

She’s currently run 1:54.61, placing her sixth all time, but she’s still a way off the world record of 1:53.28, which has been unbroken for more than 40 years.

As she progresses towards the next Olympic cycle we have to believe that she’ll be targeting that record – whether it’s in 2025, 2026 or after, remains to be seen. It does seem likely that she will take a shot at the indoor 800m record of 1:55.82, perhaps at the Keely Klassic, or during the 2025 indoor season which culminates at the Indoor World Championships in March.

MEN’S 800m: LIKELY

In 2024 two men – Emmanuel Wanyoni and Marco Arop – ran within 0.3 of a second of David Rudisha’s world record of 1:40.91, and five of the top eight men of all time are currently competing over the distance. 

With a lot of 800m racing coming in 2025, and a lot of competition, we think there’s a good chance we’ll see a new men’s 800m world record. It could then be one of those records that takes years to break (the current record is from 2012) and then gets beaten several times in quick succession.

MEN’S 1500m: LIKELY

Some of the most exciting racing in the running world is over 1500m, led by Jakob Ingebrigtsen in his ongoing challenges with Josh Kerr, Cole Hocker and Yared Nuguse. 

There’s a good chance that one or more of them will set out at world record pace this year, and Ingebrigtsen has more to prove than the others having missed out on an Olympic medal in 2024.

The current record is 3:26:00 and Ingebrigtsen is the fastest man currently running, being fourth all-time with his 3:26.73 from 2024. 

Ingebrigtsen probably has the best shot at breaking the record, but it may be that he drags the others around and takes the assist – like he did in the Olympic 1500m final when he went out hard and faded as the other three passed him, and all passed the previous Olympic record.

The men’s one mile could also be challenged this year. Ingebrigtsen and Nuguse are third and fourth on the all time list, though it’s a distance which is run less often than the 1500m, so provides fewer opportunities. 

We’ll be watching every 1500m meet this year with an expectation of fast times and thrilling racing.

WOMEN’S EVERY DISTANCE FROM 1500m to 10,000m: LIKELY

The fearless attitude in women’s running right now makes it a thrilling time to watch because in any race we could see a world record broken, on the track or the road.

In 2024, women’s records were lowered in the 1500s, 2000m and 10,000m on the track, and 5k and 10k on the road. 

In the 1500m, Faith Kipyegon seems to go out at record pace in a couple of meets a year, and that will probably happen again in 2025; Beatrice Chebet broke both the 5k road time and 10,000m track record, she also holds the 5000m track world record, so she’ll be favourite to lower her own records.

With the volume of competition leading into a World Championship, it’s the track records which are most likely to be broken. We’re excited to see what happens.

MEN’S & WOMEN’S HALF MARATHON: MAYBE

The men’s half marathon record was bettered by one second in 2024 when Yomif Kejelcha ran 57:30 to surpass Jacob Kiplimo’s previous best.

The women’s half marathon record is 1:02:52 by Letesenbet Gidey at the 2021 Valencia Half Marathon. But five of the top 10 fastest women’s half marathons were run in 2024, with three women within 40 seconds of the record last year (all of them achieving their times at the Valencia Half Marathon). 

With several fast half marathons in the calendar, including the Copenhagen Half and Valencia Half, we can expect the records to be challenged, especially as more track runners step up from 10,000m to the half marathon. 

MEN’S & WOMEN’S MARATHON: UNLIKELY, BUT WHO KNOWS!?

The men’s marathon world record of 2:00:35 and the women’s time of 2:09:56 are both so fast that it seems hard to believe that either will be broken in 2025, but the thrill of watching marathons right now is that we never know what might happen on the day – and someone may decide they are feeling good and take their shot, and make it. That’s what happened with Ruth Chepngetich’s world record in 2024, and it may happen again. 

No men looked like they were willing to attack Kelvin Kiptum’s record in 2024. In 2025, contenders may include:

• Sabastian Sawe, who ran the fastest marathon of 2024. His time of 2:02:05 at the Valencia Marathon was the second-fastest debut marathon of all time, and put him as fifth-fastest of all time. He’s racing the London Marathon in 2025 and it’s a stacked field of fast runners. 
• Could Eliud Kipchoge have another shot? He ran his fastest official marathon of 2:01:09 in 2022 and his fastest time since then is 2:02:42, but had some disappointing performances in 2024. He’s running the 2025 London Marathon in one of the greatest elite fields of all time. 
• Sisay Lemma is fourth all-time after his 2:01:48 at the 2023 Valencia Marathon. He’s racing Boston in the spring so won’t break the record there (it’s an ineligible course for world records), but may race a fast autumn marathon in Berlin, Chicago or Valencia. 
• Jacob Kiplimo, the former half marathon world record holder, is finally going the full distance when he debuts at the 2025 London Marathon. Could he go for the world record at his first attempt? Will he race a second marathon in the autumn? 

The fearlessness in women’s running may see someone take a shot at getting close to the record in London, Berlin, Chicago or perhaps even Valencia. The top contenders are all running the 2025 London Marathon:

• Ruth Chepngetich is the world record holder, having run 2:09 in Chicago at the end of last year, so she’ll get to London knowing she’s at least two minutes faster than the rest of the field
• Tigist Assefa is the second-fastest of all time, with her 2:11:53 at the 2023 Berlin Marathon. She was also second in the Paris Olympic Marathon, taking silver after missing out on a sprint finish
• Sifan Hassan is the third-fastest of all time (2:13:44). She won the Paris Olympic Marathon and also knows how to win in London, where she was the champion in 2023 in her debut marathon.
• Peres Jepchirchir won last year’s London Marathon in a new women’s-only world record of 2:16:16.

Whether or not they go for a world record, the London Marathon feels like it’s due a dramatic lowering in its women’s course record time (currently 2:16:16), like we’ve seen in Berlin (2:11) and Chicago (2:09). If that happens this year then it means we’ll be seeing a new women’s-only marathon world record, currently held by Jepchirchir from her win in London last year. The women’s-only marathon record is recognised on courses where the women begin ahead of the men and do not have any male pacers.

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What running world records do you think we’ll see get broken in 2025? 

Image from Athlos