Uganda’s Jacob Kiplimo became the first person to break the 57-minute barrier for the half-marathon as he set a stunning new world record of 56 minutes 42 seconds in Barcelona on Sunday.
What just happened? 🤯
— World Athletics (@WorldAthletics) February 16, 2025
🇺🇬’s Jacob Kiplimo smashes the half marathon world record, flying to 56:42 at the Barcelona Half Marathon 🚀
📸Daniel Meumann for https://t.co/eAHK0L0xXB
*Subject to usual ratification procedures pic.twitter.com/rNfhQxjOJc
The 24-year-old two-time world cross-country champion, who held the half-marathon record between 2021 and 2024, reclaimed the record by slashing 48sec off the previous record of 57:30, set by Ethiopia's Yomif Kejelcha in Valencia in October.
It is the greatest single improvement on the men’s world half marathon record.
Almost a minute ☠️
— Konstantin Kan (@knstntn_kan) February 16, 2025
Jacob Kiplimo destroyed previous HM WR — 56:38 in Barcelona.
5 k — 13:34
10 k — 26:46
15 k — 39:46
20 k — 53:09
finish — 56:38 pic.twitter.com/qQRDfWwYg3
Racing in ideal weather conditions of 13 degrees celsius (55 degrees fahrenheit) with no wind, Kiplimo also set a world best of 39:47 for 15km en route to the half marathon record.
"I am very excited about what I did today," said Kiplimo, who made his Olympic debut in the 5 000m in Rio when he was just 15.
"I started strong, I wanted to have a great race, but I didn’t expect to break the world record.
"As the kilometres passed and I saw that I was going at record pace, I told myself that I had to maintain that pace no matter what it took."