lille half marathon won in 59:03

official top 2 times 59:07 and 59:10

unofficial women

filomena chepchirchir 68:04

diane kipkemoi 68:06

the ethiopians were block at the airport!! tsegay was supposed to run.

Good debut for kipchoge

disappointing by Kichoge. Given his track credentials, you'd

expect at least 58:xx.

however, he has the build of a marathoner and can probably

go 2:02 after 2-3 attempts.

Tsegay was targeting the world record, they setted up the race for him but ethiopian federation deny him to take the plane to prepare for half marathon world championship.

yyy wrote:disappointing by Kichoge. Given his track credentials, you'd

expect at least 58:xx.

not that surprising

he is probably good for ~ 12'50/26'45, so his speed decay is much more marked than the "pure" elite 1/2M guys who likely woud barely dip under 13'00

still, some indication that the mid-58 guys woud likely be a bit quicker than 26'45 if they ran a 10k instead of 1/2M just off their 1/2M training

i do think likes of sammy/zedster wouda been close to the 10k wr in their peak 1/2M shape

interestingly

12'50/26'45 ->58'54

for a track 1/2M

i usually add ~ 30s as starting point for the road conversion for 1/2M, which is about what he ran

His best mark this year is 12:55 so he is nowhere near 12:50

now. Probably 13:15 so his "speed decay" decay is not that bad.

Jeilaan wrote:

the ethiopians were block at the airport!! tsegay was supposed to run.

Good debut for kipchoge

Good old Ethiopian federation, always there to support the athletes.

Are they the new AK?

yyy wrote:

disappointing by Kichoge. Given his track credentials, you'd

expect at least 58:xx.

Huh? So he missed your expectations by about one second per kilometre...in his debut. I don't care what someone's 5000 time is - 59:27 first time out in the HM is rock-solid. Little doubt he can take it sub-59. No idea what his inevitable marathon will be like, though...

french paper says Kipchoge ran 59:53 for third behind Ezechiel Chebii (59:05) and Bernard Koech (59:10). Let's wait for official results.

http://www.lavoixdunord.fr/region/athletisme-semi-marathon-de-lille-nouveau-record-de-ia0b0n661389

Kipchoge barley spent any time on the 10000m. He did that one fast 10000m in Hengelo in 2008, then the fast one last year, and this year he failed to qualify but he should spend some time at that distance instead of going right from 5000m to Marathon. Also remember he had that 8:07 2 mile indoors where he destroyed Farah so his speed isn't gone yet

Great race

OFFICIAL LILLE HALF MARATHON TOP 10 RESULTS

1 EZEKIEL CHEBII 59:05

2 BERNARD KOECH 59:10

3 ELIUD KIPCHOGE 59:25

4 GIDEON KIPKETER 59:53

5 GILBERT MASAI 59:57

6 ANDUALEM BELAY 60:10

7 LUCAS ROTICH 60:32

8 PHILEMON LIMO 61:13

9 GEOFFREY KENESI 61:14

10 BERNARD KIPYEGO 61:25

WOMEN RESULTS

1 FLOMENA CHEPCHIRCHIR 68:06

2 DIANE CHEPKEMOI 68:08

3 PRISCAH JEPLETING 68:35

4 LYDIA CHEROMEI 68:54

5 SARAH CHEPCHIRCHIR 68:59

6 MONICA JEPKOECH 69:12

7 GLADYS KIPSOI 69:22

8 YEBRGUAL MELESE 69:45

9 GOITETOM HAFTUV 70:31

10 ABEBECH AFEWORK 71:19

results here: http://runafricadotcom.wordpress.com/2012/09/01/semi-marathon-de-lille/

Previous course records 59:34 (Kiprop) and 67:00 (Ketany)

Wrong

Record for men was 59:34 by Stephen Kibiwott

Record for women is 66:57 by Mary Keitany

Also note that if you run under 59 for men or 67 for women you pick up 15 000 euros bonus.

The Waterboy wrote:

Kipchoge barley spent any time on the 10000m. He did that one fast 10000m in Hengelo in 2008, then the fast one last year, and this year he failed to qualify but he should spend some time at that distance instead of going right from 5000m to Marathon. Also remember he had that 8:07 2 mile indoors where he destroyed Farah so his speed isn't gone yet

I see what you're saying, but I think he's trying to make the best living he can. These days, there's a lot more money in running road races than in track 10,000s, especially if you are a Kenyan who can't make the Olympics but can challenge to win pretty big half marathons.

Kipchoge's 59:26 debut is so far the second fastest half marathon debut ever, the first being Moses Mosop's 59:20. However, I don't seeing him breaking 59:00 anytime soon. Although he is a very fast 5K runner, both on the track and at the Carlsbad 5000, be needs to improve on his 10,000m and 10K PRs, currently 26:49 and 28:11 respectively. Once he can run under 26:45 consistenly and maybe a 2:05 marathon, than I can easily see him running around 58:50. But then, Stephen Kibet's 58:54 performance at CPC Loop Den Haag was completely out of the blue, so it is possible that he will run very fast soon.