Kenyan Patrick Ivuti won the Chicago Marathon yesterday after a tight two-man race to the finish with Jaouad Gharib of Morocco in unseasonably warm weather.

Ivuti and Gharib were neck-and-neck crossing the finish line in a time of two hours, 11 minutes, 11 seconds, with the winner called several minutes later as the temperature climbed towards 27 degrees Celsius.

Kenyan Daniel Njenga finished third in 2:12:45, and defending champion Robert Cheruiyot of Kenya, who in last year's race suffered a head injury after slipping at the finish line, was fourth in 2:16:13.

Ethiopian Berhane Adere, the women's defending champion, sprinted past marathon newcomer Adriana Pirtea of Romania to clinch the women's race in 2:33:49. Pirtea, whose time was 2:33:52, held the lead for the last four miles before Adere's final burst. American Kate O'Neill placed third in 2:36:15.

About 45,000 athletes ran on a flat urban route through Chicago's residential neighbourhoods and the downtown business district.

Cheruiyot, a three-times Boston Marathon winner, leads the chase for the men's $500,000 prize in the 2006-07 World Marathon Majors. The rolling two-year series finishes with the New York Marathon in November.