Florence Kiplagat Flies to Half Marathon World Record of 1:05:12 in Barcelona

Published by IAAF on Feburary 16, 2014

Following in the footsteps of Renaud Lavillenie and Genzebe Dibaba indoors on Saturday, the world records continued to tumble this weekend as Kenya’s Florence Kiplagat stopped the clock in 1:05:12 at the eDreams Mitja Marató de Barcelona on Sunday (16)

Kiplagat's half marathon world record* run sliced 38 seconds off the previous mark of 1:05:50, which was set by her compatriot Mary Keitany at the 2011 RAK Half Marathon.

The 26-year-old 2010 IAAF World Half Marathon Championships gold medallist led the race in the Catalan city from the start and finished fourth overall, beaten only by a trio of male runners.

She passed 10km in 31:08, which was more than a minute faster than her official personal best for the distance in a 10km race, but 23 seconds of Keitany's pace three years ago.

Kiplagat then pushed hard over the next five kilometres to bring the world record within her grasp she passed 15km in 46:35, five seconds faster than Keitany and just seven seconds outside Tirunesh Dibaba's world record for the distance, which was set in a 15km race.

At 16km, Kiplagat's first pacemaker Marc Roig dropped out, and a couple of kilometres later her other aide Stanley Siroro stepped aside but Kiplagat continued to fly down the road.

Kiplagat gets 20km world record as well

She passed 20km in 1:01:56, which is also a world record and 40 seconds faster than the previous mark, which also belonged to Keitany having been set during her world record half marathon run.