Eight of the ten fastest men's times in history are in the Valencia Half Marathon! from Valencia Marathon Media

Abel Kipchumba, photo courtesy of Valencia Marathon Media

Letesenbet Gidey, photo courtesy of Valencia Marathon Media

Bekele meets Cheptegei, the man who took away his world records, in Valencia

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The Valencia half marathon was pretty spectacular on Sunday, with a women’s WR, plus amazingly fast times on the men’s side. Like this release from the folks at Valencia Marathon media.

Eight of the ten fastest men’s times in history are in the Valencia Half Marathon

Â· In the women’s category, three of the top 10 times, including first and second fastest, have been set in the city of running, with the two fastest times in history

ValÃ¨ncia, 26th October 2021.– From today, the Valencia Half Marathon Trinidad Alfonso EDP has the privilege of being the only race that currently holds the men’s and women’s world record at its distance, but that is not all. The 21K organised by the SD Correcaminos holds eight of the 10 best half marathon times in history for men and three in the women’s ranking.

Kibiwott Kandie’s time in the 2020 Elite Edition remains the world record with his unbeaten 57:32. After him, second, third and fourth place go to Jacob Kiplimo (57:37), Rhonex Kipruto (57:49) and Alexander Mutiso (57:59), all achieved in Valencia City of Running in 2020.

In sixth and seventh place are Abel Kipchumba (58:07) and Rhonex Kipruto (58:09), respectively, in eighth place is Philemon Kiplimo (58:11) in the Elite Edition and Daniel Mateiko with his 58:26 on Sunday closes the ranking.

Abel Kipchumba’s time was also the world best time for 2021, bettering the record he himself had held since September in Herzogenaurach, Germany (58:48). In fact, the top seven in Valencia last Sunday improved on that record.

Much more than a women’s world record

In the women’s category, Valencia takes the first two places on the podium thanks to Letesenbet Gidey’s world record in the 30th Valencia Half Marathon and Yalemzerf Yehualaw’s 1:02:52 – who also beat the previous world record – with 1:03:51. In addition, in eighth place we find Joyciline Jepkosgei who set the world record in this race in 2017 with 1:04:51.

Moreover, the combined time of the male and female winner is the best ever obtained in the same race, 2h00:59 (58:07 + 1:02:52), beating the combined time of the 2020 Elite Edition (2h02:50).

Author

Larry Eder

Larry Eder has had a 51-year involvement in the sport of athletics. Larry has experienced the sport as an athlete, coach, magazine publisher, and now, journalist and blogger. His first article, on Don Bowden, America's first sub-4 minute miler, was published in RW in 1983. Larry has published several magazines on athletics, from American Athletics to the U.S. version of Spikes magazine. He currently manages the content and marketing development of the RunningNetwork, The Shoe Addicts, and RunBlogRun. Of RunBlogRun, his daily pilgrimage with the sport, Larry says: "I have to admit, I love traveling to far away meets, writing about the sport I love, and the athletes I respect, for my readers at runblogrun.com, the most of anything I have ever done, except, maybe running itself." Also does some updates for BBC Sports at key events, which he truly enjoys. Theme song: Greg Allman, " I'm no Angel."

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