Kenya’s Joyciline Jepkosgei’s world half-marathon record of 1:04:51 will be under threat as world double gold medallist Sifan Hassan targets it at the Media Maratón de Valencia Trinidad Alfonso in Spain tomorrow.
Hassan is plotting a stab at Jepkosgei’s two-year-old record when she hits the road in the IAAF Gold Label race in Valencia.
The recently crowned world 1,500m and 10,000m champion set two records this year and she is still hungry for more achievements.
Subsequently, the 21km race pose as the best platform to end the year on a high. Hassan, an Ethiopian-born Dutch, broke the world record in the mile in Monaco on July 12 after clocking 4:12:33 as well as the 5km record in February.
Coached by Briton Charles Van Comenee, Hassan boasts of the European record of 1:05:15 in the half marathon set in Copenhagen last year.
To ensure she brings down the record, the decorated athlete will be paced by Morocco’s Yakoub Labquira and Dutchman Roy Hoornweg who have been tasked with a 3:04 per kilometre tempo, on schedule for a 30:40 in the opening 10km.
The Dutch runner leads a strong field in Valencia which has drawn 10 other athletes who have timed under 1:08:00 in the 21km race. Also in contention of the coveted world record is Kenya’s Fancy Chemutai whose personal best of (1:04:52) is a second shy of Jepkosgei’s time. She is joined by compatriot Joan Chelimo whose fastest time is 1:05:04 set in Prague last year.
However, Chelimo has not shown similar form this year, with a season’s best of 1:08:01 and a 2:26:24 performance in her marathon debut in Tokyo last March. Dorcas Tutoek is the third top Kenyan in the field. Early in the year, Tutoek clocked 1:06:33 in Istanbul and 1:06:36 in Copenhagen.
Others are Ethiopian pair of Gudeta Kebede and Senberi Teferi. Kabede is the reigning world champion over the distance, having set a women's only world record of 1:06:11 in Valencia last year.
Teferi, 28, holds a personal best of 1:05:45 set in Ras Al Khaimah earlier this year and will be out to give a better account of herself after she failed to finish the 10,000m in Doha Worlds. Kebede, 24, managed the sixth place in 10,000m in Doha recently. In the men's race, Kenya is represented by Geoffrey Koech, Benard Ngeno, Albert Kangogo, Leonard Barsoton and Isaac Kipsang.
