Kiplagat breaks Half Marathon World record

Kenya’s Florence Kiplagat lowered the World Half marathon record by 38 seconds in Barcelona on Sunday.

Kiplagat stopped the clock in 1hr, 05.12min in a gun-to-tape performance to beat the previous record of 1:05:50 set by her compatriot Mary Keitany at the 2011 RAK Half Marathon.

The 26-year-old 2010 IAAF World Half Marathon Championships gold medallist actually finished fourth overall, beaten only by a trio of male runners, including former World 5,000m champion Eliud Kipchoge, who retained the men’s title in 1:00:52.

She passed 10km in 31.08, more than a minute faster than her official personal best for the distance in a 10km race, but 23 seconds off Keitany’s pace three years ago. Kiplagat then pushed hard over the next five kilometres to bring the world record within her grasp.

She passed 15km in 46:35, five seconds faster than Keitany and just seven seconds outside Tirunesh Dibaba’s world record for the distance, which was set in a 15km race. At 16km, Kiplagat’s first pacemaker Marc Roig dropped out, and a couple of kilometres later, her other aide Stanley Siroro stepped aside.

She passed 20km in 1:01:56, which is also a world record and 40 seconds faster than the previous mark, which also belonged to Keitany having been set during her world record half marathon run.

Kiplagat’s half marathon world record was also more than a minute faster than she had ever run before over the distance, her previous best of 1:06:38 coming in the 2012 Rome-Ostia race.

She won the 2013 Berlin Marathon in 2:21:13 and has built on that base during the winter in order to launch her assault on the record, helped on the day by almost perfect conditions, with almost no wind and a temperature hovering around 13 degrees Celsius.

“This is a not a day I will forget, I’m so happy! The circuit was very fast and I thank my pace makers Roig and Siroro, they did a great job. I felt so well from the beginning and the weather was perfect, so I had the feeling that this could be a special day,” said Kiplagat.

“I really didn’t expect a time as fast as this. All I wanted to do was have a good race at a high rhythm in preparation for the London Marathon (in April),” she added. The next woman was more than seven minutes in arrears, with Great Britain’s Nicola Duncan taking second place in 1:12:15.

Kipchoge successfully defended  the title he won in Barcelona 12 months ago.  Laban Mutai was second in 1:01:19 and Peter Emase third in 1:02:47. Kipchoge finishing just adrift of his personal best and course record time of 1:00:04 set at the same race in 2013.

ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY IAAF