© Copyright – 2020 – Athletics Illustrated

The first weekend of September 2020 has proven to be a big deal in the sport of athletics. Friday, Dutch athlete Sifan Hassan and Englishman Mo Farah each broke the world one-hour record at the Brussels Diamond League meet. Over at the Muller British Championships, national records were being set. Saturday, the highly anticipated half-marathon in Prague provided a world record too.

Kenya’s Peres Jepchirchir on Saturday broke the world record for a women’s only half marathon, stopping the clock at one-hour, five minutes, and 34 seconds.

The performance bettered the old record by 37 seconds and stood at 1:06:11. It was set by Ethiopia’s Netsanet Gudeta at the 2018 World Half Marathon Championships in Valencia.

Peres Jepchichir. Courtesy of RunCzech

Kibiwott Kandie of Kenya failed to break the benchmark of 58:30 – that was his goal – but he came close with a very strong performance of 58:37. His personal best was 58:58, which he set in winning the Ras Al Khaimah Half Marathon in February 2020.

The world record is owned by Kenya’s Geoffrey Kamworor 58:01 set in 2019 in Copenhagen.

Kandie’s ran the fifth-fastest half-marathon ever behind Abraham Kiptum (58:18), Eritrea’s Zersenay Tadese (58:23) and the last Samuel Wanjiru (58:33).