2020 World Half Marathon Championships, Gdynia, Poland, October 17, 2020, photo by Dan Vernon Photography
The 2020 World Half Marathon Championships was held in Gdynia, Poland on October 17, 2020. This was the only World Champs in 12 months, and it was an exciting championships. Thanks to the EME news, this is the behind the scenes stories of Gdynia…
GDYNIA FLASH-BACK
Peres Jepchirchir, 2020 World Half Marathon Championships, Gdynia, Poland, October 17, 2020, photo by Dan Vernon Photography
GDYNIA (POL): After improving her women’s-only world record to win her second world half marathon title in Gdynia on Saturday, Kenya’s Peres Jepchirchir is targeting a 2:17-2:18 performance in the Valencia Marathon on 6 December. Jepchirchir’s current PB stands at 2:23:50 from last year’s Saitama Marathon in Japan.
2020 World Half Marathon Championships, Gdynia, Poland, October 17, 2020, photo by Dan Vernon Photography
GDYNIA (POL): Competing for the Athlete Refugee Team Otmane Nait-Hammou, who clocked a PB of 63:28 in the men’s race in Gdynia hopes his performance gives inspiration to other refugee athletes, informs World Athletics. “I hope I gave the inspiration to other refugees to do better than me in the next World Championships….I wanted to show that we can perform like other athletes. That refugees can be like normal people,” he said. “I feel really proud of that and that I was able to represent 69 million people from around the world, to show that we can do it.”
Joshua Cheptegai and Jacob Kiplimo, 2020 World Half Marathon Championships, Gdynia, Poland, October 17, 2020, photo by Dan Vernon Photography
GDYNIA (POL): Jake Smith’s time of 60:31 in Gdynia was both a British U23 record and a Welsh senior record, improving the mark set by former world marathon record-holder Steve Jones with 60:59, informs AW. “I was quite lucky, it was only like two weeks ago that I got the email that I had turned Welsh!” On the record he said: I had my eye on it. It was a crazy time and he’s a world record-holder and he has done so many things in his lifetime.”
Jacob Kiplimo, 2020 World Half Marathon Championships, Gdynia, Poland, October 17, 2020, photo by Dan Vernon Photography
GDYNIA (POL): Germany’s Amanal Petros finished a disappointing 100th in 65:22, more than three minutes outside his lifetime best. He fell on one of the tight bends on the first lap which affected his performance, informs Leichtathletik.de.
Peres Jepchirchir, 2020 World Half Marathon Championships, Gdynia, Poland, October 17, 2020, photo by Dan Vernon Photography
GDYNIA (POL): Contesting her first World Half Marathon Championships since 1998, Finland’s Annemari Kiekara was a non-finisher due to a foot injury.
