This, lately, is all about records. A few weeks ago it was the marathon. This time it was the half marathon. The setting could not be any other than the City of Running and its Valencia Half Marathon Trinidad Alfonso Zurich.
The big favorite to win was the Ethiopian Yomif Kejelcha. And he did not disappoint. The Ethiopian ran out of hare at kilometer 3 and instead of being intimidated and cautious, he had clear ideas. He set his sights on the World Record. “The half marathon record was my dream and I have broken it. I’m very happy,” he said at the press conference after the event, in which he also stressed that since kilometer 15 in his head only the words ‘World Record’ were going through his head. He got it, by one second (57:30). And the best thing is that he feels he has the strength to go down to 56 minutes. Would he have made it if it hadn’t been for the rain that appeared in the Valencian half marathon?
In the case of the girls, the winner was Agnes Ngetich (1:03:04). She did not set a world record but she was just a few seconds behind Letesenbet Gidey’s time, also achieved in Valencia. In fact, the Kenyan woman achieved the record of her country.
Although the winners were not the only national records achieved in Valencia. Moira Stewartová (1:08:44, Czech Republic), Vivian Aroche (1:13:51, Guatemala), Cristian Zamora (1:02:03, Uruguay), Shokhruchk Davlyatov (1:01:48, Uzbekistan) and Kaoutar Boulaid for Spain (1:08:47) did the same. The recently naturalized athlete lowered the record by almost a minute, compared to the time made in the last edition by Laura Luengo (1:09:41). Anecdotally, the Extremaduran this year also lowered her time (1:08:50) and even the debutant Irene Sanchez-Escribano (1:09:10), lowered the time of the Spanish record despite suffering a fall at kilometer 18.
And as if these were not enough records, there was one more important one, the participation, with 24240 finishers. A spectacular figure that predicts that in December, when registrations open, these will fly again as in recent years. And more, after what has happened with two other Superhalfs, Copenhagen and Cardiff, which sold out in less than 24 hours.
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