Ethiopia’s Yalemzerf Yehualaw smashes world record in Spain
Ethiopia’s Yalemzerf Yehualaw smashed the women’s 10km road world record in Castellon, Spain on Sunday (27 February), winning the race in a stunning time of 29:14 minutes.
The world half marathon bronze medalist averaged 2:55 minutes per kilometer to better the previous mark by 24 seconds.
Tokyo 2020 Olympic10,000m silver medallist Kalkidan Gezahagn of Bahrain had held the world record with a time of 29:38 at The Giants Geneva 10K run on 3 October 2021. .
Kenyans Vicoty Chepngeno finished one minute 59 seconds behind the Ethiopian in 30:14 for second while Mercy Cherono was third in 30.48.
“Today a dream came true. I felt really great in the race, the first 5km was very fast, I was struggling a little bit in the second 5km but I was still able to maintain a high pace,” said the 22-year old Ethiopian, who last year became the second fastest women’s half-marathon runner in history.
She clocked 1:03:51 in Valencia when her compatriot Letesenbet Gidey broke the world record.
Yehualaw broke the half marathon world record last year by 19 seconds, although the time was not ratified by World Athletics as the course was 54 metres short.