Ethiopian runner Yomif Kejelcha breaks men's half-marathon world record

Ethiopian runner Yomif Kejelcha made every second count as he broke the men’s half-marathon record by just one second Sunday.

Kejelcha finished strongly in the Spanish city of Valencia to set a time of 57 minutes, 30 seconds, knocking a single second off the record set in 2021 by Ugandan runner Jacob Kiplimo in Lisbon, Portugal.

Kejelcha is a former world championship silver medalist in the 10,000 meters and holds the indoor world record for the mile, which he set in Boston in 2019.

Like all track and field records, Kejelcha’s will be subject to ratification procedures before World Athletics considers it official.

It was the second time in a row that the record was bettered by such a narrow margin. When Kiplimo set his record, the time was a single second faster than that set by Kibiwott Kandie of Kenya a year earlier in Valencia.

It briefly seemed there could be a world record Sunday in the women’s half-marathon too, but Kenya’s Agnes Ngetich missed out by 11 seconds while chasing Letesenbet Gidey’s mark of 1 hour, 2 minutes, 52 seconds. Gidey also set her record in Valencia, in 2021.

World Athletics said it was the second-fastest time in history. It was the first time that Ngetich, a world championship finalist last year in the 10,000, had raced the half-marathon.