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Dickson Kiptolo Chumba (born 27 October 1986) is a Kenyan long-distance runner who competes in marathon races. He has won the Rome, Eindhoven, Tokyo, and Chicago marathons and has a personal best of 2:04:32 for the distance.

Career

Born in Kenya's Nandi District, Chumba worked as a gardener until he decided to focus on running professionally. He began working with Claudio Berardelli in Kapsabet in 2008.^[1] His first marathon outings came in 2010 and he was runner-up at both the Madrid Marathon and the Italian Marathon.^[2]^[3] His first win came in March 2011 when he ran a personal best of 2:08:45 hours to claim the Rome City Marathon title ahead of defending champion Siraj Gena.^[4] He was faster still at the Frankfurt Marathon in October, running 2:07:23, although the close to world record pace meant he finished seventh.^[5]

At the start of 2012 he had his third career runner-up finish at the Xiamen Marathon, having gradually fallen away from the winner Peter Kamais.^[6] Victory came at the Eindhoven Marathon as he surged away in the second half of the race. Although he struggled in the final two kilometres he won by a margin of half a minute and set a new course record (and personal best) of 2:05:46.^[7]

He started the 2013 Xiamen race quickly, but dropped out after an ill-timed surge to the front.^[8] He placed seventh at the 2013 Boston Marathon and then came eighth at the Amsterdam Marathon in October.^[9]

He won the 2014 Tokyo Marathon in 2:05:42, improving the course record by more than a minute.

In October 2015 he won the 2015 Chicago Marathon in 2:09:25, in a brilliant tactical race, pulling away at 30 K in a World Marathon Majors race conducted without pace makers.

In 2018 he won the Tokyo Marathon for the second time in 2:05:30, improving his personal best time for the distance.