Jacob Kiplimo sliced 49 seconds off the world half-marathon file in Barcelona on Sunday (Feb 16) with an unbelievable 56:41. In such kind, he certainly has the potential to smash the world marathon file on his debut over 26.2 miles in London this spring.
Racing on the eDreams Mitja Marató Barcelona by Brooks, the 24-year-old smashed Yomif Kejelcha’s file of 57:30. En route he additionally set a world finest for 15km of 39:47.
Geoffrey Kamworor of Kenya was second in 58:44 forward of Samuel Mailu of Kenya with 59:40 with Marc Scott the main Brit with 61:00.
Kiplimo is a former world record-holder for the half-marathon with 57:31 set in Lisbon in 2021. He additionally received the world half-marathon title in 2020 and world cross-country crowns in 2023 and 2024, whereas on the monitor his finest instances are 12:40.96 for 5000m and 26:33.93 for 10,000m.
Yomif Kejelcha (proper) and Jacob Kiplimo (Getty)
Ever since Moses Tanui grew to become the primary man to interrupt the one-hour barrier in Milan in 1993, the world half-marathon file has continued to tumble.
Haile Gebrselassie grew to become the primary man to run inside 59 minutes when he clocked 58:55 in Tempe in 2006. Geoffrey Kamworor got here inside a second of breaking the 58 minutes in Copenhagen in 2019 however the next 12 months Kibiwott Kandie crashed by the barrier as he stormed to 57:32 in Valencia.
Kiplimo then took a second off that file in 2021 earlier than Kejelcha ran 57:30 in Valencia final October. And now Kiplimo has loved a quantum leap by taking the file effectively inside 57 minutes.
“I’m very enthusiastic about what I did immediately,” mentioned Kiplimo. “I began sturdy, I wished to have an ideal race, however I didn’t anticipate to interrupt the world file. I began very sturdy within the first two kilometres to get away from my rivals. Because the kilometres handed and I noticed that I used to be going at file tempo, I advised myself that I needed to preserve that tempo it doesn’t matter what it took.”
The ladies’s race was additionally quick in Barcelona with Joyciline Jepkosgei of Kenya profitable in a course file of 64:13.
The now former world record-holder Kejelcha, in the meantime, was additionally in motion on Sunday with 26:30 for 10km in Castellón to go No.2 on the world all-time rankings.
It has been fairly some week for world information with Jakob Ingebrigtsen setting world mile and 1500m indoor marks in Lievin, Yared Nuguse clocking a short-lived mile file in New York and Grant Fisher working 3000m and 5000m information in New York and Boston.

Toshikazu Yamanishi (Mark Shearman)
There was a world file within the males’s 20km race stroll, too, with Japan’s Toshikazu Yamanishi clocking 76:10 in Kobe on Sunday.
Yamanishi, a two-time world champion, improved the earlier world file of 76:36 set by fellow Japanese race walker Yusuke Suzuki in Nomi in 2015 by 26 seconds.
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