Senbere Teferi and Yomif Kejelcha won the Valencia Half Marathon (Medio Maratón Valencia) on Sunday finishing in 65:32 and 59:05, respectively. Both are Ethiopian athletes.
Sifan Hassan from the start, paced by Dutch athlete Roy Hoornweg as well as Moroccon Yakoub Labquira, she was focussed. She passed the 5K marker in 15:19 as did Teferi and Kenyan Joan Chelimo.
Hassan tripped and fell hard at around 7K, and subsequently loser her position, however, she dusted herself off and caught up to the lead pack again.
The second 5K split was slightly slower to cross 10K in 30:43 at world record pace. At this point, Hassan had not yet caught up.
By the 15K the leaders increased their gap on Hassan by nearly 20 seconds.
Teferi dropped the pace a little and headed for the finish line with a commanding lead.
She took 13 seconds off of her own national record that she had set in Ras Al Khaimah. Hassan, continued to charge hard and dropped Chelimo with 1500m to go. She finished second in the time of 65:53 and Chelimo was third in 66:09.
The men’s race has the leaders pass 5K in 13:55 and 10K in 27:56. At that point, two Ethiopians Jemal Yimer and Kejelcha as well as four Kenyans Benard Ngeno, Albert Kangogo, Leonard Barsoton, and Geoffrey Koech were in the hunt.
They passed 15K in 42:09.
Over the final kilometre Kejelcha dropped the hammer and crossed the finish line in the time of 59:05.
Ngeno was runner-up in a lifetime best of 59:07 while Yimer completed the podium after a thrilling sprint finish with Barsoton, both being credited in 59:09, a PB for the Kenyan.
Top-8
Men
1 Yomif Kejelcha (ETH) 59:05
2 Benard Ngeno (KEN) 59:07
3 Jemal Yimer (ETH) 59:09
4 Leonard Barsoton (KEN) 59:09
5 Shadrack Korir (KEN) 59:40
6 Geoffrey Koech (KEN) 59:58
7 Henry Rono (KEN) 1:00:13
8 Sondre Moen (NOR) 1:00:15
Women
1 Senbere Teferi (ETH) 1:05:32
2 Sifan Hassan (NED) 1:05:53
3 Joan Chelimo (KEN) 1:06:09
4 Alia Saeed Mohammed (UAE) 1:08:01
5 Tigst Assefa (ETH) 1:08:24
6 Netsanet Gudeta Kebede (ETH) 1:08:35
7 Molly Huddle (USA) 1:09:35
8 Genet Kassahun (ETH) 1:11:09