Jepchirchir tore the tape in one hour, five minutes and 16 seconds to recapture the world title (first won in 2016) and improving her personal best by 18 seconds set in Prague on September 5.
Peres Jepchirchir broke her own women-only race world record at the World Half Marathon Championships in Gdynia, Poland on Saturday.
Jepchirchir tore the tape in one hour, five minutes and 16 seconds to recapture the world title (first won in 2016) and improving her personal best by 18 seconds set in Prague on September 5.
Jepchirchir, 27, narrowly edged Germany’s Melat Kejeta by two seconds (1:05:18) as Ethiopia’s Yalemzerf Yehualaw sealed the podium places a second later (1:05:19) in the entertainingly closely contested race.
“It’s unbelievable. My goal was to win this race, I did not expect that I would beat the world record, but I realized that it could happen when we passed the 20km mark. It was a little bit windy, but the course was good for me.
“I feel sorry for the athletes who fell, they are strong athletes,” Jepchirchir told World Athletics.
She added: “My season is not yet complete. I still have the Valencia Marathon in December so I’ll prepare for that. I think this win gave me a lot. I’d like to run 2:17 or 2:18 for the marathon. This pandemic was difficult and it affected a lot of people. I used this time to train, I didn’t stop my training because I was trying to reach my shape. I am so happy with this. It’s a gift to all the Kenyans, to my family. I am going to rest now for one week to recover then I’ll continue training for Valencia.”
19-year-old Ugandan Jacob Kiplimo stole the show from compatriot trach star Joshua Cheptegei and garnered gold with a championship record time of 58 minutes and 49 seconds. The performance by the teen consigned military man Kibiwott Kandie to the second place and Ethiopia’s Amedework Walelegn, to the third.
Track sensation Cheptegei, who was making a debut in the Half Marathon timed 59 minutes and 21 seconds settled for the fourth position. Last week, Cheptegei shattered the 10,000-meter world record.
The championships had originally been scheduled to take place in March but were postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
