World Record for Women-Only Half Marathon was Smashed today

The women-only half marathon world record was improved to 1:06:11 at the IAAF/Trinidad Alfonso World Half Marathon Championships Valencia 2018 but not by race favorite Joyciline Jepkosgei, who owns the mixed-race standard of 1:04:51, but by slightly surprising Ethiopia’s Netsanet Gudeta. Gudeta – with the name Kebede on her bib in reference to her extended family name but who appears in vast majority of race results and is better known by solely her father’s name – made a decisive move at the 14th kilometer mark. There she shake off both Jepkosgei and her little-known Kenyan compatriot Pauline Kamulu and was never challenged again. She reduced Lornah Kiplagat’s world and championship record, which had stood since the 2007 edition, by 14 seconds – as well as slicing 1:15 off her own personal best set in Delhi last November.

posted Saturday March 24th