Jacob Kiplimo, of 25 yearsrecovered the best record ever at 21.0975 kilometers, on the streets of the Portuguese capital, less than two years after Ethiopian Yomif Kejelcha stripped him of that status.
The men’s world record was broken this Sunday at the Lisbon Half Marathon, again by Ugandan Jacob Kiplimo, who completed the race in 57.20 minutes, 10 seconds less than the previous mark set by Ethiopian Yomif Kejelcha.
In the 35th edition of the emblematic Lisbon race, the popular version of which starts from Ponte 25 de Abril, in Almada, Kiplimo prevailed over Kenyans Nicholas Kipkorir (58.08) and Gilbert Kiprotich (58.59), second and third placed.
Jacob Kiplimo, of 25 yearsrecovered the best record ever at 21.0975 kilometers, on the streets of the Portuguese capital, less than two years after the Ethiopian Yomif Kejelcha stripped him of that status, in Valencia, on October 27, 2024 (57.30).
Since then, Kiplimo has again managed to be the fastest to run the half marathon, on February 16, 2025, in Barcelona, but the mark of 56.42 minutes – 48 seconds below the record – was not ratified, as he benefited from a car to set the pace.
The current champion of the Chicago Marathon, bronze medalist in the 10,000 meters at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games and the Oregon 2022 World Championships, had been the most recent athlete to set a world record in the Lisbon Half Marathon, with a record of 57.31, on November 21, 2021 – the race was rescheduled due to the covid-19 pandemic.
The Portuguese António Pinto was the first to run in time for the best world mark in the ‘Meia’ in Lisbon, on March 15, 1998, with a time of 59.43 minutes.
This mark remained in his possession for just over two years, until the Kenyan Paul Tergat ‘stealed’ it, in Milan, on April 4, 1998 (59.17), and improved, in the Portuguese capital, on March 26, 2000, to 59.06.
However, the marks obtained by Pinto and Tergat have never been recognized internationally for failing one of the validation criteria: the difference in level between the starting point of the race (Ponte 25 de Abril) and the finish point (Praça do Império) is 69 meters, which exceeds the meter per kilometer of the regulatory race.
At the beginning of 2004, World Athletics (then IAAF) started to officially recognize half marathon records and the maximum ‘fell’ in Lisbon, on March 21, 2010, when Eritrean Zersenay Tadese won the 20th edition, in 58.23 – he would win again, the following year, but was seven seconds slower.
In 2010, the Lisbon Half Marathon no longer had the characteristics of a ‘downhill race’, which the regulations exclude. Elite athletes stopped starting from the 25 de Abril Bridge toll plaza and passed to Cruz Quebradafor a route completely different from the mass race, which continues.
In the women’s sector, Belgian Daniele Justin held the maximum established in the 1978 edition of the Nazaré Half Marathon for seven days, which ran in 01:17.48 hours, until North American Miki Gorman withdrew her status, by 01.50 minutes (01:15.58), in Pasadena.
Daniele Justin’s milestone was not recognized by World Athletics, but by the Association of Road Running Statisticians (ARRS).
Afterwards, only once more was the ‘Meia’ world maximum surpassed on Portuguese soil, on April 1, 2001, by the Kenyan Susan Chepkemei, whose mark of 01:05.44 was improved, more than two years later, by Paula Radcliffe (01:05.40).
The women’s world record has been held by the Ethiopian since October 24, 2021 Letesenbet Gideyworld champion of the 10,000 meters in Oregon2022 and bronze in Tokyo2020, who completed the distance in 01:02.52 hours.
