ZCZC
BSP-17
ATHLETICS-KEN-CZE
Jepchirchir sets new women-only half marathon world record
PRAGUE, Sept 5, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – Kenya’s Peres Jepchirchir set a new women-only
half marathon world record time of one hour, five minutes and 34 seconds in
Prague on Saturday.
Jepchirchir broke away from the pack after seven kilometres and ran solo to the
finishing line, beating the previous record of 1:06:11 by Ethiopia’s Netsanet
Gudeta in 2018.
“I was thinking to run maybe 1:04:50, but I’m so happy,” said Jepchirchir, who
claimed the world half marathon title in 2016.
“It’s difficult to run alone. If I had a pacemaker I would run 64 (minutes),”
she said.
Jepchirchir’s time was more than a minute off the women’s world half marathon
record of 1:04:31, set by Ethiopia’s Ababel Yeshaneh in February in a mixed men
and women race.
Her compatriot Kibiwott Kandie then set a world-leading half marathon time of
58:37 in the men’s race.
Kandie also spent most of the race on his own on the 1.3-kilometre (0.8 miles)
circuit in a park in Prague’s broader centre.
Saturday’s event was for elite athletes only. Prague scrapped its half-marathon
and marathon weekends in the spring because of the coronavirus pandemic.
BSS/AFP/AU/16:30 hrs