Historic Women’s Half-Marathon World Record Set In Prague

Joyciline Jepkosgei is the first woman ever to break the 65-minute barrier for the half-marathon

Expats.cz Staff Jason Pirodsky

Written by Expats.cz Staff,  Jason Pirodsky Published on 03.04.2017 10:47:56 (updated on 03.04.2017) Reading time: 1 minute

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In early February, a new women’s Half Marathon World Record was set at the RAK Half Marathon by Peres Jepchirchir with a time of 01:05:06.

This weekend, that seven-week-old record was bested by Joyciline Jepkosgei, a fellow Kenyan who won the 2017 Sportisimo Prague Half Marathon Saturday in a stunning 64:52, slicing 14 seconds off Jepchirchir’s world record.

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According to trade publication Letsrun.com, “Jepkosgei announced before the race that she was targeting the record, and went out extremely hard.”

As a result, the half-marathon mark was not the only one to fall; Jepkosgei’s splits at 10k (30:04), 15k (45:37), and 20k (61:25) were all faster than the previous world records.

Race organizers RunCzech said: 

“It took just a bit over 10 months for 23-year-old Joyciline Jepkosgei to grow from an unknown Kenyan athlete into the first woman ever to break the 65-minute barrier for the half marathon.”

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Of setting four world records in one day the young runner said:

“I ran the race and I just wanted to follow my own body. Even now I’m still not sure if I have really done it. At the start I just wanted to run one hundred percent and give everything for the RunCzech Racing Team.”

The Sportisimo Prague Half Marathon debuted in Prague in 1999; in 2006 the number of participants in the Prague Marathon was exceeed by half-marathon runners for the first time.

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