RunnerWorld || The 28-year-old from Ethiopia ran 4:55 mile pace to take 20 seconds off the previous mark.
Records continued to fall on Friday as Ethiopia’s Ababel Yeshaneh ran the fastest 13.1 in history by winning the Ras Al Khaimah Half Marathon in 1:04:31.
Marathon world record-holder Brigid Kosgei finished second in 1:04:49, which is also faster than the previous world record.
Pending ratification, Yeshaneh improved on the record of 1:04:51 set by Joyciline Jepkosgei in 2017. In setting the record, Yeshaneh averaged 4:55-minute per mile pace during the half marathon in the United Arab Emirates. She also won a hefty prize purse of more than $100,000 for winning the women’s race and breaking the course and world records.
“I didn’t imagine this result,” Yeshaneh told World Athletics. “I am a world record-holder!”
For the first 5K, Kosgei and Yeshaneh followed the pacemaker, who brought the runners through the split in 15:07. Only Kosgei and Yeshaneh were able to maintain the pace of 30:18 at the 10K mark, which is 17 seconds faster than Yeshaneh’s 10,000-meter personal best on the track and only one second slower than the world-leading time of 30:17 set during the 2019 track season.
Yeshaneh passed Kosgei for good about a mile beyond the 15K mark and continued running world-record pace all the way through the finish line.
Prior to Friday, the 28-year-old’s best half marathon performance was 1:05:46 from the 2018 Copenhagen Half Marathon, where she broke the Ethiopian national record.
The half marathon world record builds on a successful 2019 season for Yeshaneh, who finished second to Kosgei at the Chicago Marathon. When Kosgei broke the world record by running 2:14:04, Yeshaneh finished second in a personal best of 2:20:51.
In Rais Al Khaimah, the men’s race was won by Kenya’s Kibiwott Kandi in 58:58.
The half marathon world record fell five days after the 5K world record was broken by Joshua Cheptegei in Monaco. The men’s half marathon world record was also broken recently when Geoffrey Kamworor shattered the mark with a winning time of 58:01 in Copenhagen last September.
