Valencia Diary: More news on the 2018 IAAF World Half Marathon Champs, from EME News

VALENCIA (ESP): A total prize purse of 245,000 USD is on offer at the IAAF World Half Marathon Championships in Valencia. The individual winners will each receive 30,000 USD with prize-money going down sixth-place (3000 USD). The winning teams will receive 15,000 USD and there is also the incentive of a 50,000 USD world record bonus. The current ratified world records in single-sex races are: Zersenay Tadese at 58:23 and Lornah Kiplagat at 66:25.

VALENCIA (ESP): Kenyan Leonard Barsoton is targeting a podium finish at the World Half Marathon Championships, informs the Daily Nation. "My training went on well and I will be looking forward to a good run where I want to be on the podium," he said. Barsoton won a silver medal behind Geoffrey Kamworor at the World Cross Country Championships in Kampala last March.

VALENCIA (ESP): Charlotte Purdue has been chosen as the British team captain for the World Half Marathon Championships.

VALENCIA (ESP): Jordan Hasay is a late withdrawal from the American team for the World Half Marathon Championships due to a tight plantar. Natosha Rogers has also pulled out due to a knee injury.

VALENCIA (USA): The 21.1 km course for Saturday's IAAF/Trinidad Alonso World Half-Marathon Championships is not only flat and fast, but is arguably one of the most beautiful road race courses in the world. Starting and finishing at the iconic Ciudad De Les Artes y la Ciencias (City of Arts & Sciences) designed by the architect Santiago Calatrava, about one-third of the course hugs the sunken Jardin del Turia, the 110-hectare park in the heart of this city which was formerly a riverbed. The athletes will pass fountains, historic buildings, palm trees and flowering trees which already fully-bloomed just two days into spring. The pavement is very smooth; snow and road salt never touch the streets here. The finish is nothing short of spectacular. When the athletes re-enter the City of Arts & Sciences, they will run along one of the reflecting pools, make a hard right just before the Science Museum, up a specially constructed ramp, then a hard left for the final run to the finish line on an elevated promenade with pools of water on both sides. The finish straight is covered with a light blue carpet which, at the moment, is under a layer of protective plastic film. Describes David Monti for Race Results Weekly.

MONACO (MON): The Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) on Thursday welcomed an extra voluntary financial donation of US $50,000 from the Local Organising Committee of the IAAF/Trinidad Alfonso World Half Marathon Championships Valencia 2018 to strengthen the out-of-competition testing programme for the event to be held on Saturday. In addition to the doping controls conducted as part of the usual out-of-competition testing programme on the elite athletes in the IAAF Registered Testing Pool, the AIU was able to conduct more than 120 no-notice out-of-competition doping controls on athletes who will take part in the championships.