It could not be. This year, a world record could not fall in Valencia, but the Trinidad Alfonso Valencia Half Marathon was not dimmed in any way. Ethiopian runners Yomif Kejelcha and Senbere Teferi were surprised and imposed themselves on the finish line in one morning with perfect weather conditions for the race.

The options of beating the women's world record of the event vanished soon. The Dutch Sifan Hassan , world champion of 1,500 and 10,000 meters, started as a favorite to beat the 1:04:51 that marked Joycilene Jepkosgei in 2017 also in Valencia. However, a fall at the beginning of the test left her without options. Shortly after kilometer 7, when he led the group of female participants, one of the popular runners who accompanied the group stumbled upon her and went to the ground. The ability to overcome this athlete was demonstrated when he entered the goal just a few minutes after the winner, Teferi, who did so with a time of 1: 05.33 .

In less than an hour he traveled the 21 kilometers the winner in the men's category, Yomif Kejelcha , who was the whole race in the lead group with his compatriot Jemal Yimer and the Kenyans Bernard Ngengo and Leonard Barsoton . The four disputed the victory in the last kilometer, when Yomif launched an attack that allowed him to cross the finish line in the first place with a time of 59:05 minutes , although far from the world record.

First Spaniards

The first of the national athletes was the Valencian Juan Antonio Pérez, Chiki Pérez , of Serrano, who managed to cross the finish line at 1:00:59 achieving the second best mark in history for a national athlete.

Laura Méndez was the first woman, who broke her best personal record with 1h13: 44 in her first half marathon.

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