An ecstatic Valencia crowd played witness to yet another world half-marathon record, as Kenya’s Abraham Kiptum won Sunday’s Valenica Half Marathon in a world record time of 58:18.
Kiptum’s record meant he smashed his previous personal best by a huge 51-seconds, an achievement made even more impressive by the fact that his previous 59:09 PB had only been run one month prior at the Copenhagen half-marathon.
The run saw Kiptum shade 5 seconds off the previous 58:23 record set by Zersenay Tadese in 2010 and also means that Valencia has now hosted all three half-marathon world records.
On top of the men’s world record, Valencia has also played host to the women’s world record of 1:04:51 set by Kenya’s Joyciline Jepkosgei and the record for a women’s only race of 1:06:11 set by Ethiopia’s Netsanet Gudeta.
It’s a NEW WORLD RECORD!!!! 58:19 for Abraham Kiptum in Valencia Half Marathon #ValenciaEsMedioMaraton #ValenciaHalf
— Cuan Walker (@runwithcuan) October 28, 2018
The conditions on the day were near-perfect, with the 11C temperature and slight winds allowing Kiptum to ease into the race before breaking away from the 15-man leading pack between the 10 and 15 kilometre marks.
And from that point there was of course no stopping the soon to be record holder, as the crowd roared him on to a dominant victory and the sensational new world record.
“I can’t believe it, I’m over the moon,” said Kiptum. “Obviously I knew I was in good shape because I set a PB last month in Copenhagen but I was eager to run in Valencia because it’s one of the flattest circuits I’ve ever run and I was confident of improving on my best.
“I realized the race slowed down between the ninth and 10th kilometre so I decided to step up the pace and go for everything.”
This latest achievement will surely give the 29-year-old a lot of encouragement for his next race, as he heads to the Abu Dabi Marathon on 7th December in search of a 2:05 time.
