Ethiopian athlete Ababel Yeshaneh today improved the world record in the half marathon. She wiped Joyciline Jepkosgei’s time off the tables.
28-year-old Yeshaneh raced in Ras al-Khaimah, in the United Arab Emirates, to a time of 1 hour, 4 minutes, and 31 seconds. That made her 20 seconds faster than Joyciline Jepkosgei, the Kenyan who set the world record at 1:04:51 in Valencia on October 22, 2017.
The expectation was that Brigid Kosgei could take over the record from Jepkosgei. The 26-year-old Kenyan is already the world record holder in the marathon.
Kosgei improved the 16-year-old world record of the British Paula Radcliffe in Chicago in October by more than a minute to 2:14:04. The Kenyan managed to stay under the world record of Jepkosgei on the half-marathon in Ras al-Khaimah, but with 1:04:49 she finished second after Yeshaneh, who walked away from her in the last few kilometers.
