Geoffrey Kipsang And Tiny Eritrea Have Days To Remember At 2014 IAAF World Half Marathon Championships

by LetsRun.com
March 29, 2014

21-year-old Geoffrey Kipsang has shown the potential to be a senior world champion, but now he’s got a world title to prove it as he won the 2014 IAAF World Half Marathon championship today in Copenhagen in 59:07 ahead of Eritrea’s Samuel Tsegay and Ethiopia’s Guye Adola, who both ran 59:20.

Finishing fourth was 5-time world half marathon Zersenay Tadese of Eritrea, who was unable to win a record sixth individual World Half Marathon title today, but it was a great day for tiny Eritrea nonetheless as the tiny country of just 6 million plus won gold in the team competition as the top three Eritrean runners all broke an hour. With Tsegay in second (59:20), Tadese in fourth (59:37) and Nguse Amlosom (59:37) in fifth, Eritrea’s top three man total time of 2:58:59 was by far the best on the day.

If more than three men scored, Eritrea still would have won the team title as their two other finishers weren’t far behind – Ghirmay Ghebreslassie (7th 60:09) and Samson Gebreyghannes (8th 60:12).

2006 NCAA 5,000 and 10,000 champ Josphat Boit led the US effort by finishing 21st in a new personal best of 61:32 (previous PR of 61:41). “It was a great race,” Boit told Race Results Weekly after the race.  “I came here to place as high as I could, and it’s great to represent,” he said, pointing at the USA logo on his chest.

Team USA was sixth in the team standings in 3:06:18.

Quick takes and full individual results appear below. Team results will eventually show up here.

Quick Take #1: Kipsang is the real deal. The junior world xc champ in 2011, he might have been favored to win senior World XC gold last year in Poland but he didn’t run the race as instead of running the Kenyan Trials he dominated the RAK Half Marathon. He wasted no time running a full marathon last year (follow the $) running 2:09:12 in Rotterdam in his debut. Since then, he’s run 2:06:12 in Berlin and 2:07:37 in Tokyo last month. If you want to know why Kenya struggles to win medals in the 10,000 on the track, it’s because young talents like Kipsang are on the roads. Remember at 18 in 2011, in the span of 8 days, he ran his track prs of 27:12 at Pre and then 13:12.23 in New York.

Article continues below player.

59:07 without a rabbit is very impressive. His next goal? The WR. “For now, my main goal is to prepare well to run the world record in the half-marathon,” he told reporters.

Kipsang trains with Olympic marathon champ Stephen Kiprotich under the tutelage of Patrick Sang.

Quick Take #2: Think about Eritrea’s performance for a minute. In a single race, the country of 6 million had five men run 60:12 or better on a non-aided course. The US’s population is more than 50 times bigger at 313 million plus and in the history of the US only two men have ever run under faster than 60:12 – Dathan Ritzenhein 60:00, Ryan Hall 59:37 (Todd Williams ran 60:11 on an aided course).

Eritrea’s team gold wasn’t totally unexpected. Ken Nakamura tells us they had won team silver on 7 straight occasions.

Quick Take #3: Stats by Ken Nakamura: For the fifth time in history KEN won both men and women’s race in the World half Marathon. Previously then won both in 2010, 1999, 1998, & 1997.

 59:07 is the 4th fastest time in the history of World Half marathon championships. It is also the second fastest winning time in history.
Five runners broke 60 minutes in the World half marathon, but in 2007 record 7 runners broke 60 min.
ERI won first team gold medal in World Half marathon snapping KEN’s team winning steak at six. After seven straight team silver ERI finally won team gold.
Best-ever-marks-for-place for 8th and 9th in the World Half Marathon Championships were set.
Samuel Tsegay and Guye Adola became the 109th and 110th, respectively to crack 60 minutes for half marathon

More: The Messageboard discussion of this race is here: Official 2014 IAAF World Half Marathon Discussion Thread. *IAAF Recap of race.
*Women: LRC Led by Gladys Cherono’s Gold, Kenya Women Dominate 2014 IAAF World Half Marathon By Going 1 Through Five – Americans Bersagel and Kleppin Both in Top 15

Result
Pos ATHLETE COUNTRY MARK
1 Geoffrey Kipsang Kamworor KENYA KEN 59:07 WL
2 Samuel Tsegay ERITREA ERI 59:20 PB
3 Guye Adola ETHIOPIA ETH 59:20 PB
4 Zersenay Tadese ERITREA ERI 59:37 SB
5 Nguse Amlosom ERITREA ERI 59:59
6 Wilson Kiprop KENYA KEN 1:00:00
7 Ghirmay Ghebreslassie ERITREA ERI 1:00:09 SB
8 Samsom Gebreyohannes ERITREA ERI 1:00:12 PB
9 Adugna Takele ETHIOPIA ETH 1:00:14 PB
10 Kenneth Kiprop Kipkemoi KENYA KEN 1:00:28 SB
11 Geofrey Kusuro UGANDA UGA 1:00:40 PB
12 Stephen Mokoka SOUTH AFRICA RSA 1:00:46 PB
13 Elroy Gelant SOUTH AFRICA RSA 1:01:09 PB
14 Bonsa Dida ETHIOPIA ETH 1:01:11 PB
15 Lusapho April SOUTH AFRICA RSA 1:01:15 PB
16 Polat Kemboi Arikan TURKEY TUR 1:01:21 NR
17 Ayad Lamdassem SPAIN ESP 1:01:21 PB
18 Masato Kikuchi JAPAN JPN 1:01:22
19 Fikre Assefa ETHIOPIA ETH 1:01:29 PB
20 El Hassane Ben Lkhainouch FRANCE FRA 1:01:30 PB
21 Josphat Boit UNITED STATES USA 1:01:32 PB
22 Simon Cheprot KENYA KEN 1:01:36
23 Isaac Korir BAHRAIN BRN 1:01:39 PB
24 Robert Kwemoi Chemosin KENYA KEN 1:01:42
25 Alemu Bekele BAHRAIN BRN 1:01:45 PB
26 Daniel Rotich UGANDA UGA 1:01:55 SB
27 Daniele Meucci ITALY ITA 1:01:56 SB
28 Shogo Nakamura JAPAN JPN 1:01:56 PB
29 Moses Kibet UGANDA UGA 1:02:01 PB
30 Paul Pollock IRELAND IRL 1:02:09 PB
31 James Kibocha Theuri FRANCE FRA 1:02:10 SB
32 Wissem Hosni TUNISIA TUN 1:02:10 SB
33 Tyler Pennel UNITED STATES USA 1:02:19
34 Abdi Hakin Ulad DENMARK DEN 1:02:23 PB
35 Matt Llano UNITED STATES USA 1:02:24
36 Hiroto Inoue JAPAN JPN 1:02:24
37 José Antonio Uribe MEXICO MEX 1:02:25 PB
38 Javier Guerra SPAIN ESP 1:02:26 PB
39 Shadrack Kiptoo Biwott UNITED STATES USA 1:02:27
40 Mikael Ekvall SWEDEN SWE 1:02:28 NR
41 Félicien Muhitira RWANDA RWA 1:02:30 PB
42 Raouf Boubaker TUNISIA TUN 1:02:40 PB
43 Bekir Karayel TURKEY TUR 1:02:47 PB
44 Urige Buta NORWAY NOR 1:02:49 SB
45 Simone Gariboldi ITALY ITA 1:02:50 PB
46 Fernando Cabada Jr UNITED STATES USA 1:02:53
47 Alexis Nizeyimana RWANDA RWA 1:02:54 SB
48 Abdullah Abdulaziz Aljoud SAUDI ARABIA KSA 1:02:57 NR
49 Oscar Cerón MEXICO MEX 1:02:57 PB
50 Aweke Ayalew BAHRAIN BRN 1:03:00 PB
51 Bilisuma Shugi BAHRAIN BRN 1:03:01 PB
52 Juan Carlos Romero MEXICO MEX 1:03:09
53 Sohta Hoshi JAPAN JPN 1:03:28
54 Abdellatif Meftah FRANCE FRA 1:03:45 SB
55 Felix Ntirenganya RWANDA RWA 1:03:47 PB
56 Kenta Murayama JAPAN JPN 1:03:51
57 Marius Ionescu ROMANIA ROU 1:03:53 SB
58 Isaac Ayeko UGANDA UGA 1:03:55
59 Asbjørn Ellefsen Persen NORWAY NOR 1:03:55 PB
60 Gianmarco Buttazzo ITALY ITA 1:03:58
61 Lars Budolfsen DENMARK DEN 1:03:59 PB
62 Jesper Faurschou DENMARK DEN 1:04:00 PB
63 Nicolae Alexandru Soare ROMANIA ROU 1:04:06 PB
64 Ben Moreau GREAT BRITAIN & N.I. GBR 1:04:08 SB
65 Jesús Antonio Nuñez SPAIN ESP 1:04:11 PB
66 Berihun Wuve ISRAEL ISR 1:04:36 PB
67 Mehmet Caglayan TURKEY TUR 1:04:53 SB
68 Ruben IIndongo FRANCE FRA 1:04:58 SB
69 Driss El Himer FRANCE FRA 1:04:59 SB
70 Janis Girgensons LATVIA LAT 1:05:10 PB
71 Hussein Habumugisha RWANDA RWA 1:05:10 SB
72 Kári Steinn Karlsson ICELAND ISL 1:05:12 NR
73 Roman Fosti ESTONIA EST 1:05:13 PB
74 Øystein Sylta NORWAY NOR 1:05:18 SB
75 Anuradha Cooray SRI LANKA SRI 1:05:19 NR
76 Fatih Bilgic TURKEY TUR 1:05:25 SB
77 Demsew Zegeye ISRAEL ISR 1:05:26 PB
78 Raúl Pacheco PERU PER 1:05:29
79 Maksim Pankratau BELARUS BLR 1:05:31 SB
80 Zelalem Bacha BAHRAIN BRN 1:05:46 PB
81 Luis Alberto Orta VENEZUELA VEN 1:05:46 SB
82 Dmytro Siruk UKRAINE UKR 1:05:56 PB
83 Zohar Zimro ISRAEL ISR 1:06:03 PB
84 César Lizano COSTA RICA CRC 1:06:06 SB
85 Cristhian Pacheco PERU PER 1:06:06 PB
86 Yimharan Yosef ISRAEL ISR 1:06:28 PB
87 Ben Ashkettle NEW ZEALAND NZL 1:06:38 SB
88 Juraj Vitko SLOVAK REPUBLIC SVK 1:06:47
89 Jarkko Järvenpää FINLAND FIN 1:07:03 SB
90 El Akhdar Hachani TUNISIA TUN 1:08:05 SB
91 Yolo Nikolov BULGARIA BUL 1:08:08 PB
92 Esteban Cuestas URUGUAY URU 1:08:11 SB
93 Rui Yong Soh SINGAPORE SIN 1:08:18 PB
94 Rafael Iglesias SPAIN ESP 1:08:28
95 Theis Nijhuis DENMARK DEN 1:08:37 SB
96 Asrat Mamo ISRAEL ISR 1:08:52 PB
97 Mert Girmalegesse TURKEY TUR 1:09:15
98 Arnar Pétursson ICELAND ISL 1:09:44 PB
99 Andrew Grech MALTA MLT 1:10:09 NR
100 Ortik Ramazonov UZBEKISTAN UZB 1:10:13 PB
101 Mok Ying Ren SINGAPORE SIN 1:10:15 SB
102 Johannes Naitembu NAMIBIA NAM 1:10:26 SB
103 Arturs Bareikis LATVIA LAT 1:11:02 SB
104 Khasan Gaforov TAJIKISTAN TJK 1:11:20
105 Marcel Tschopp LIECHTENSTEIN LIE 1:11:24 SB
106 Kokan Ajanovski F Y REP. OF MACEDONIA MKD 1:12:00 NR
107 Ilir Kellezi ALBANIA ALB 1:14:59 SB
108 Chan Kit Chan MACAO MAC 1:19:23 SB
109 Chia-Che Chang CHINESE TAIPEI TPE 1:54:50 SB
Henrik Them DENMARK DEN DNF
Ilja Nikolajev ESTONIA EST DNF
Tebalu Zawude ETHIOPIA ETH DNF
Ingvar Hjartarson ICELAND ISL DNF

 

 

 

Men’s Team Standings

POS Team COUNTRY MARK
Details 1 Eritrea Eritrea Eritrea 2:58:59
Details 2 Kenya Kenya Kenya 2:59:38
Details 3 Ethiopia Ethiopia Ethiopia 3:00:48
Details 4 South Africa South Africa South Africa 3:03:13
Details 5 Uganda Uganda Uganda 3:04:39
Details 6 Japan Japan Japan 3:05:45
Details 7 United States United States United States 3:06:18
Details 8 Bahrain Bahrain Bahrain 3:06:27
Details 9 France France France 3:07:28
Details 10 Spain Spain Spain 3:08:01
Details 11 Mexico Mexico Mexico 3:08:34
Details 12 Italy Italy Italy 3:08:47
Details 13 Turkey Turkey Turkey 3:09:04
Details 14 Rwanda Rwanda Rwanda 3:09:14
Details 15 Denmark Denmark Denmark 3:10:25
Details 16 Norway Norway Norway 3:12:05
Details 17 Tunisia Tunisia Tunisia 3:12:58
Details 18 Israel Israel Israel 3:16:08
Geoffrey Kipsang wins the 2013 RAK Half  (photo by Victor Sailer, courtesy of RAK Half-Marathon; used with permission)    Geoffrey Kipsang wins the 2013 RAK Half
(photo by Victor Sailer, courtesy of RAK Half-Marathon; used with permission)
Want More? Join The Supporters Club Today
Support independent journalism and get:
  • Exclusive Access to VIP Supporters Club Content
  • Bonus Podcasts Every Friday
  • Free LetsRun.com Shirt (Annual Subscribers)
  • Exclusive Discounts
  • Enhanced Message Boards