[ad_1]
Issued on:
Prague (AFP)
Kenya’s Peres Jepchirchir set a new women-only half marathon world record of one hour, five minutes and 34 seconds in Prague on Saturday.
Jepchirchir broke away from the pack after seven kilometers and ran alone to the finish line, beating the previous record of 1:06:11 by Ethiopia’s Netsanet Gudeta in 2018.
“I was thinking about running maybe 1:04:50, but I’m very happy,” said Jepchirchir, who claimed the world half-marathon title in 2016.
“It’s hard to run alone. If I had a pacemaker, I’d run 64 (minutes),” she said.
Jepchirchir’s time was more than a minute behind the world record for the women’s half marathon of 1:04:31, set by Ababel Yeshaneh of Ethiopia in February in a mixed men’s and women’s race.
His 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 alone on the 1.3 kilometer (0.8 mile) circuit in a park in the wider center of Prague.
Saturday’s event was for elite athletes only. Prague scrapped its half marathon and marathon weekends in the spring due to the coronavirus pandemic.
© 2020 AFP
