This round of World Athletics Half Marathon Championships has been like no other. Celebrated runners Peres Jepchirchir and Jacob Kiplimo made their mark for their respective countries. Jepchirchir, who represents Kenya, broke the world record for the women-only race. An hour later, Uganda’s Jacob Kiplimo set a fresh men’s championship record on Saturday in Gdynia, Poland.
Jepchirchir is now a two-time winner of gold in the world championship, the win that led Kenya to secure a silver medal in the team race category. The runner ran ahead of Melat Yisak Kejeta and Yalemzerf Yehualaw during the marathon’s last leg.
In the 2016 World Half Marathon, a women-only world record was set by covering 13.1 in 1:05:16. Jepchirchir told a renowned sports journal, “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 20K. It was a little bit windy, but the course was good for me.”
