VALENCIA: Ethiopia’s Netsanet Gudeta broke Kenya’s dominance in the World Half Marathon Championships by smashing the women’s only race world record in Valencia, Spain on Saturday.

Kenyan women had swept the medals at the previous two championships but Gudeta pushed on alone from 15 kilometres to win in a time of one hour, six minutes and 11 seconds.

The 27-year-old finished a comfortable 43 seconds ahead of Kenyan Joyciline Jepkosgei, who holds the overall world record of 1:04:51. Jepkosgei’s compatriot Pauline Kamulu came third.

The previous record for a single-sex race was set by Lornah Kiplagat in Udine, Italy in 2007.

Earlier, Geoffrey Kamworor won his third successive title in the men’s event in a time of 1:00:02. The Kenyan, who won silver in the 10,000 metres at the 2015 World Championships in Beijing, was followed over the line by Abraham Cheroben of Bahrain and Aron Kifle of Eritrea.

Published in Dawn, March 26th, 2018