Valencia Half Marathon offers one of the fastest and deepest fields all-time

The Valencia Half Marathon organizers have easily gathered one of the top half marathon fields for this year’s race. On October 27, 13 men who have ran under-60 minutes will toe-the-line. Two of them have gone sub-58 minutes. In the women’s race, 15 have clocked sub-70 minutes. And six have gone sub-67.

The men

Ethiopian Yomif Kejelcha has a best of 57:41. Fellow Ethiopian Selemon Barega has a 57:50 performance to his credit. Meanwhile, Kenya’s Daniel Mateiko has clocked 58:26. Three more athletes have run under 59 minutes and eight more have gone under 60.

Il 27 ottobre una Valencia Half Marathon stellare: Si preannuncia stellare la Mezza Maratona di Valencia di domenica 27 ottobre, nella lista di partenza anche 4 atleti azzurri https://t.co/123U6iftQV Running pic.twitter.com/U9Lnb7L203

— MarathonWorld (@MarathonWorld1) September 3, 2024

Twenty-seven-year-old Kejelcha has run under 60 minutes four times in his career. He holds the fifth-fastest half-marathon performance of all time. Only Jacob Kiplimo of Uganda twice (57:31, 57:37), and Kenya’s Kibowott Kandie twice (57:32, 57:40) have run faster making him the third-fastest man ever.

In May this year, Kejelcha ran the 5000m in the time of 12:38.95. His 10,000m best is 26:31.01 in June. Barega is nearly as fast over those distances. Kandie seems to excel more at the half-marathon distance than the Ethiopians. While he has some up-and-down performances, this field may bring out his best.

The top non-African seed would be Italian Pietro Riva with his 59:41 best.

The women

The women’s field is just about as fast as the men’s with Kenyan Agnes Jebet Ngetich topping the seed list. In January, she broke the 10km world record with a 28:46 performance on the road. Ngetich is the first woman to run under 29 minutes (Not to be confused with Kenyan Beatrice Chebet running sub-29 on the track.). Ngetich is going to debut in Valencia at the half-marathon distance and is favoured to podium or even win.

Missing from Valencia is Ethiopian Letesenbet Gidey with the world record in a mix-gender race at 1:02:52 and Peres Jepchirchir with the women’s-only world record of 1:05:16. Otherwise this field is stacked.

Last year Letesenbet Gidey ran a new half marathon world record of 1:02:52 in Valencia. On December 4th she returns for her marathon debut!💪 #onthisday pic.twitter.com/fG8qBctJCM

— NN Running Team (@NNRunningTeam) October 24, 2022

Also in consideration for the podium are Ethiopia’s Tsigie Gebreselama (1:05:46) and Kenya’s Catherine Amanang’ole (1:05:39). Amanang’ole, is the world half marathon bronze medallist from the 2023 World Athletics Road Running Championships in Riga, Latvia.

Samantha Harrison from Great Britain is the top non-African seed with her 1:07:10 performance. She is consistent through the distances having run 30:51 on the road and 31:11.40 on the track. Depending on tactics, she could be a threat to the top four.

Seeded athletes