Uganda’s Jacob Kiplimo became the first person to run a half marathon below 57 minutes as he shattered the world record by 48 seconds in Barcelona.The 24-year-old ran 56 minutes and 42 seconds to eclipse Ethiopian Yomif Kejelcha’s previous world record of 57:30 set in Valencia in October.Kiplimo’s time is the best single improvement on the men’s world half-marathon record.I am very excited about what I did today,” said the former 10,000m Olympic and World Championships bronze medallist.”I wanted to have a great race, but I didn’t expect to break the world record.”I started very strong in the first two kilometres to get away from my rivals. As the kilometres passed and I saw that I was going at record pace, I told myself that hadto maintain that pace no matter what it took.”Kejelcha, who also holds the indoor mile world record, set in Boston in 2019, finished in 57 minutes 30 seconds in wet conditions in the Spanish city.The 27-year-old’s time was one second quicker than Ugandan Jacob Kiplimo’s mark from Lisbon three years ago.The women’s race was won by Agnes Ngetich of Kenya, who moved to second in the world all-time rankings with a time 63:04.In only his sixth half marathon, Kejelcha settled in behind the pacemakers from the start, making his move around the three-kilometre mark and eventually breaking away from Kenyans Daniel Mateiko and Isaia Kipkoech for victory.
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