CHICAGO — This city lived up to its billing as host of America’s fastest major marathon on Sunday as Brigid Kosgei of Kenya set a women’s world record.

A day after Eliud Kipchoge broke the two-hour barrier for the 26.2-mile distance, albeit in an event that did not count as a world record, his countrywoman Kosgei shattered Paula Radcliffe’s world marathon record, which no woman had come close to in the past 16 years.

The two achievements made the weekend one of the most memorable in the modern history of long-distance running, with Kenya asserting its supremacy as the heartbeat of the sport, in case there was any doubt.

Kosgei said she had Kipchoge on her mind ever since she saw that he ran a marathon in Vienna on Saturday morning in the once-inconceivable time of 1 hour 59 minutes 40 seconds.