The Valencia Half Marathon Trinidad Alfonso Zurich has become the fastest of 2023 in a spectacular finish that has seen three men enter almost at the same time. Finally, the first to cross the finish line was, as he did in 2020 and 2022, Kibiwott Kandie, who clocked 57:40, the fastest in 2023 and the fourth fastest time in history.
In perfect weather conditions, the city of running saw the world record come close again, although in the end Kandie was unable to achieve the same feat as he did in the Elite Edition in 2020. After the Kenyan, the second to cross the finish line was Yomif Kejelcha with a time of 57:41, followed by Hagost Gebrhiwet with 57:41.
In the women’s race, the winner was Margaret Chelimo with a great time of 1:04:46. She was followed by Irine Cheptai in second place with 1:04:53 and Janet Chepngetich in third place with 1:05:15.
Two Spanish records are broken
The joy of the morning saw the breaking of two Spanish records over the distance. The first was Carlos Mayo, who with a time of 59:39 managed to beat the Spanish half marathon record that Fabián Roncero had held for 22 years (59:52). Behind him, Laura Luengo made a surprise by achieving the second Spanish record of the day by finishing in a spectacular 1:09:41.
Mayo had already warned that she was coming very strong and that, despite preparing for his debut in the 42K at the Valencia Marathon, his objective was the half and he has not disappointed. The Spaniard already had the second best Spanish time (1:00:06) of all time, achieved in Valencia in the Elite Edition in 2020, but he wanted more and today he took what seemed almost unattainable as the Spanish record.
For her part, Luengo had said she was feeling good but was the big surprise of the day, improving by 10 seconds on the previous record that had been held by Trihas Gebre with 1:09:51 since 2008.
In addition to Carlos Mayo’s good performance, the rest of the Spanish team also did very well. Hamid Ben Daoud came in second with 1:00:41 and Jorge Blanco was third with 1:02:02. In women, the second classified was Esther Navarrete with a time of 1:09:58 and the third was Marta Galimany with 1:10:45.
