Ethiopia: Yomif Kejelcha breaks the men’s half-marathon world record
He would have finished strong in the Spanish city of Valencia, setting a time of 57 minutes and 30 seconds, taking one second off the record established in 2021 by Ugandan runner Jacob Kiplimo in Lisbon, Portugal. A former silver medalist in the 10.000 meters at the World Championships, Kejelcha also holds the world indoor mile record, which he set in Boston in 2019.
Like all athletics records, Kejelcha’s will be subject to ratification procedures before World Athletics considers it official. This is the second consecutive time that the record has been broken by such a narrow margin. When Kiplimo set his record, his time was one second faster than that of Kenya’s Kibiwott Kandie, who set his record a year earlier in Valencia.
It briefly seemed that there could also be a world record in the women’s half marathon on Sunday, but Kenyan Agnes Ngetich fell short by 11 seconds in her pursuit of Letesenbet Gidey’s mark of 1 hour, 2 minutes, and 52 seconds. Gidey also set her record in Valencia in 2021.
World Athletics stated that this was the second-best performance in history. It was Ngetich’s first time running the half marathon; she was a finalist in the 10,000 meters at last year’s World Championships.
Source: fr.africanews.com
