Statements by the two winners of the Valencia Half-Marathon 2019: Yomif Kejelcha and Semberi Teferi

Paco Borao said “We congratulate the two winners and regret that Sifan fell twice during the trial. All in all, we had a good race even though we did not hit our target for the women’s time. However this year’s men’s winner once again set a time of under an hour”.

Yomif Kejelcha, Men’s winner with a time of 59:05, stated “This was my second half-marathon and even though I had a foot injury, I was able to run fast and win. But I would have liked to have improved my time. Even so, I had the strength to sprint ahead of the other runners on the final stretch”.

Sifan Hassan — one of the favourites — came in second, setting a time of 1 hour 05:53. She recovered after two falls on the circuit and despite this stroke of bad luck, was still among those on the winners’ podium. She is keen to return to Valencia to compete. Sifan said “I am pleased to be in Valencia but it was a pity I fell twice”.