Hellen Obiri has studied race videos from the London Marathon. She’s talked at length with her coach, who has competed along the scenic course.
So in some ways, the decorated Kenyan runner's London debut on Sunday feels like any other race. And just like every other race she's in, Obiri will be a favorite — she won the New York Marathon in a course-record time in November — and she could make a run at setting the world record along the fast and flat route.
The time to beat stands at 2 hours, 9 minutes, 56 seconds, which was turned in by Ruth Chepng’etich in October 2024 at the Chicago Marathon. This course is well-suited for a fast time, too, as Paula Radcliffe set the world record in London in 2003 and held it for 16 years.
To prepare for a speedy performance, Obiri left the elevation and hills of Boulder, Colorado, for four weeks to train in the warmth and relative flatness of Phoenix.
“When you trust the progress, anything can happen,” said the 36-year-old Obiri, who is from Kisii, Kenya, and now resides in Boulder. “But for me, I’m looking forward to just running a good race.”
It's another step toward her loftier ambitions — gold at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. That particular medal is pretty much the only thing missing from a running career that began at 14 and has taken her around the world.
To think, she wanted to be a basketball player. That’s why she still shoots jumpers in the gym — when she’s not training, of course.
“I said to myself when I was young, ‘I need to work hard. I need to be the best in the world,’” said Obiri, who is sponsored by the sportswear company On. “That’s what I’m doing right now, trying to be the best in the world.”
Her accomplishments show her running versatility. She captured the bronze medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics in the marathon, along with winning the Boston Marathon earlier that season. She's also a two-time Olympic silver medalist in the 5,000 meters (2016 and 2021). In 2019, she was the world cross country champion and the gold medalist in the 5,000 at the world championships.
This weekend, there's a chance to not only win in London but a shot at the world record. That’s why she’s closely examining footage of the course and chatting with Laura Thweatt, her coach at the On Athletics Club.
“Hellen is a true competitor and she is honestly looking at London very much the same way that she looks at any other race,” said Thweatt, who finished sixth at the 2017 London Marathon. “She loves to test herself against the very best and she is a great tactician with a very high race IQ.
“So even though London is a flatter, faster course with pacers, which will all present her with new challenges, she is approaching it the same way. But she is excited to test her limits.”
Obiri views each race that way. Always has, since she was a teenager and started running for the Riruta Central secondary school in Nairobi. She burst on the international scene in 2011, earning bronze in the 800 meters at the Military World Games in Rio de Janeiro.
A career path was launched.
“Every race is like a stepping stone to a new dream of running well," said Obiri, whose favorite postrace meal is chapati (Kenyan flatbread) and beef stew.
Every so often, she will head to a basketball court close to her house and shoot around.
“Just for fun,” she said. “Sometimes you need to, outside of running, see what other sports feel like.”
Her daughter is following in her athletic footsteps. Not by running, though, but through tennis. Tania, who turns 11 next month, is showing promise on the court. Obiri said she doesn't play.
“But I do take her to the tennis court, sometimes I can just watch, to see how she plays," Obiri said. “We are trying to make her understand the importance of sports. We encourage her. Maybe in the next few years she can be like Serena Williams.”
Maybe, after Sunday's race, Obiri's on another podium — and maybe marathon's newest world-record holder. She's just taking things one step at a time.
“This is the right moment to try and run the faster course, see how fast I can go,” Obiri said. "This is a great opportunity for me.”
AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports
FILE - Hellen Obiri crosses the finish line to win the women's elite division of the New York City Marathon, Sunday, Nov. 2, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Angelina Katsanis, File)
FILE - Hellen Obiri celebrates winning first place in the women's elite division of the New York City Marathon, Sunday, Nov. 2, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Angelina Katsanis, File)
NEW YORK (AP) — A surge for Intel following a blowout profit report is leading technology stocks higher Friday, while oil prices keep yo-yoing in the wait for what’s next with the Iran war.
The S&P 500 climbed 0.6% amid mixed trading on Wall Street and is on track to top its all-time high set on Wednesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 169 points, or 0.4%, as of 1:22 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 1.4% higher thanks to the jump for tech.
Intel led the way and is potentially heading for its best day since 1987. It soared 20.2% after reporting much stronger results for the first three months of the year than analysts expected. CEO Lip-Bu Tan said the next wave of artificial-intelligence technology is increasing the need for Intel’s chips and products, and the company’s forecast for profit in the spring topped analysts’ estimates.
Such strong profit reports have helped Wall Street rally to records, and the S&P 500 has leaped more than 12% in a little under a month. Hopes have also built in financial markets that the United States and Iran can find a way to avoid a worst-case scenario for the global economy because of their war.
A ceasefire is tenuously in place between the two, but tensions between them are still keeping oil tankers from passing through the Strait of Hormuz to deliver crude from the Persian Gulf to customers worldwide.
Oil prices climbed this week on worries about the strait, but an encouraging signal came Friday after Iran’s top diplomat said he was heading to Pakistan. That's where officials have been trying to get the United States and Iran to convene for a second round of ceasefire negotiations.
The price for a barrel of Brent crude to be delivered in June yo-yoed between roughly $103 and $107 in the morning and most recently was down 0.5% at $104.53. The price for a barrel of Brent oil delivered in July, which is where more of the trading is happening in the market, fell 0.9% to $98.45.
On Wall Street, Procter & Gamble rose 3.2% after reporting stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. CEO Shailesh Jejurikar said it saw broad-based growth across regions and products, which include Bounty paper towels and Tide detergent.
That helped offset a drop of 23.6% for Charter Communications, whose profit for the latest quarter came in weaker than analysts expected. It lost 120,000 internet customers during the three months, more than some analysts expected.
Hartford Insurance Group fell 1.9% after reporting profit growth for the latest quarter that fell short of analysts’ expectations.
In the bond market, Treasury yields eased as traders upped their bets on the possibility that the Federal Reserve could resume its cuts to interest rates later this year.
The path appeared to clear Friday for President Donald Trump’s nominee to chair the Fed, Kevin Warsh, after the U.S. Justice Department ended its probe into the Fed’s current chair, Jerome Powell.
Sen. Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican, has said he would oppose Warsh until the investigation was resolved, effectively blocking his confirmation. Warsh is the choice of Trump, who has been arguing loudly for lower interest rates, which could help mortgages and other kinds of loans become less expensive.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury dipped to 4.31% from 4.34% late Thursday.
A report in the morning also said sentiment among U.S. consumers remains sour. A survey by the University of Michigan found weaker sentiment in April across political party, income, age, and education, though it improved a bit after the ceasefire in the war with Iran was announced earlier in the month.
In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed across Europe and Asia. Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 1%, and France’s CAC 40 fell 0.8% for two of the world’s bigger moves.
AP Business Writers Chan Ho-him and Matt Ott contributed to this report.
Options trader Matthew Hefter, center, works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Thursday, April 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Specialist John Parisi works at his post on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Wednesday, April 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Currency traders watch monitors near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), top center, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won, top center left, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, April 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
Currency traders work near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), right, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, April 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
A board above the floor of the New York Stock Exchange displays the closing number for the Dow Jones industrial average, Thursday, April 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
A person stands in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Thursday, April 23, 2026, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
A currency trader watches monitors near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), top center, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won, top center left, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, April 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
