A Valencia Half Marathon with records for the history books
The Valencia Half Marathon Trinidad Alfonso Zurich 2024 has reaffirmed that Valencia Ciudad del Running is the ideal destination for setting records and personal bests, as was demonstrated in this year’s event.
With Yomif Kejelcha’s new World Record (57:30), the Valencia Half Marathon has continued to extend its impressive list of world records with an absolute domination of the best historical times at this distance. Allowing Valencia to boast that it now holds both world records (it has held the women’s record since 2021 with Letesenbet Gidey’s 1:02:52).
Over the years, eight of the ten best times in the history of the race in the men’s category have been set in the Valencia Half Marathon Trinidad Alfonso Zurich. And the strong performance by the women in this year’s race has also allowed this dominance to be extended to the women’s category, as six of the top ten world records have been achieved in Valencia, where a total of five world records have been set since 2017.
This year, and despite the rain, the outstanding performances by Yomif Kejelcha and Agnes Ngetich also surpassed other previous historic performances, as the Ethiopian took the World Best (equivalent to a world record at distances that do not have official championships) at the race’s 15-kilometre mark, where the judges established a time of 40:57 (beating Cheptegei’s previous time of 41:05 in 2018), and the same for the Kenyan Ngetich, who reached that distance marker in a time of 44:15 (improving on Cheptegei’s previous time of 44:20).
A full seven national records
The Valencian asphalt witnessed a total of seven national records yesterday, including the Spanish women’s record set by Koutar Boulaid in 1:08:47, almost a minute faster than the previous record set by Laura Luengo (1:09:41). In fact, Luengo, with 1:08:50, and Irene Sánchez-Escribano, with 1:09:10, second and third respectively, also came in under the previous record.
Ngetich also achieved the record for her country, Kenya, as well as Moira Stewartová, with 1:08:44, who became the Czech Republic’s national record holder, and newcomer Vivian Aroche, who did the same for Guatemala thanks to her 1:13:51.
In the men’s category, together with Kejelcha, the Uruguayan Cristian Zamora, with 1:02:03, and the Uzbek runner Shokhruchk Davlyatov, with 1:01:48, achieved the record for their countries.
