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

by LetsRun.com
March 29, 2014

The Kenyan women put on a show today at the 2014 IAAF World Half Marathon  in Copenhagen as led by Gladys Cherono‘s gold they went one through five. The 30-year old Cherono, who won silver in the women’s 10,000 at the Moscow World Championships last summer, won gold in 67:28 as she turned the tables on Mercy Wacera (silver in 67:43) who had edged her for the title at the World’s Best 10k last month (32:06 to 32:09).

“I’m happy because of what I have achieved today,” said Cherono after the race.  “I was not expecting it.”

The American women had a good day and finished fifth – just 1:15 away from bronze. Based on personal bests, the US’s top seed was just 35th but USA put two in the top 15 and made a run for a medal in the team competition. The Americans were led by Annie Bersagel and Lauren Kleppin who both prd to finished 13th and 14th. The 30-year Bersagel, who is a 2:30 marathoner, knocked more than 3 minutes off her half marathon pb of 73:16 nearly 2 minutes off her previous pb of 72:01 from last fall, by running 70:09. Kleppin, who surprisingly ran 2:28 in LA earlier this month, knocked nearly two minutes off her 72:12 pb running 70:15 today.

“I kind of stopped looking at my watch, I just felt good,” said Bersagel to David Monti after the race. “I saw Lauren went out pretty early and I just thought, I can run with her, so let’s just try this.”

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With Bersagel and Kleppin totaling 2:20:34 (the team score is time of top three runners), the US was ahead of Japan in the battle for the team bronze after two runners (Japan had 2:20:46), but Japan got bronze as their top three were 15th, 17th and 19th. The final scorer for the US women, Clara Santucci, was 34th in a 72:21, an improvement over her previous pb of 72:41. Japan’s cumulative time was 3:31:33 to the US’s 3:32:48.

Full individual results appear below. Team results will eventually show up here.

The Messageboard discussion of this race is here: Official 2014 IAAF World Half Marathon Discussion Thread.

QT: Perfection by the Kenyan Women. Very, Very Impressive.

QT #2: Nice run by the American women.

QT #3: Stats by Ken Nakamura:For the first time in history of World Half Marathon Championships a nation (KEN) swept the medals in the women’s race.  67:28 is the fifth fastest time in World Half Marathon Championships.

More: IAAF Recap of Race
*Men: LRC Geoffrey Kipsang and Tiny Eritrea Have Days To Remember at 2014 IAAF World Half Marathon Championships

Pos ATHLETE COUNTRY MARK 1 Gladys Cherono  KEN 1:07:28 SB 2 Mary Wacera Ngugi  KEN 1:07:43 PB 3 Selly Chepyego Kaptich  KEN 1:07:51 PB 4 Lucy Wangui Kabuu  KEN 1:08:36 SB 5 Mercy Jerotich Kibarus  KEN 1:08:41 SB 6 Netsanet Gudeta  ETH 1:08:45 PB 7 Christelle Daunay  FRA 1:08:47 SB 8 Valeria Straneo  ITA 1:08:54 SB 9 Tsehay Desalegn  ETH 1:09:03 PB 10 Genet Yalew  ETH 1:09:14 PB 11 Krisztina Papp  HUN 1:10:07 12 Mame Feyisa  ETH 1:10:07 PB 13 Annie Bersagel  USA 1:10:09 PB 14 Lauren Kleppin  USA 1:10:15 PB 15 Sayo Nomura  JPN 1:10:17 SB 16 Hirut Alemayehu  ETH 1:10:24 PB 17 Risa Takenaka  JPN 1:10:29 18 Alyson Dixon  GBR 1:10:37 PB 19 Reia Iwade  JPN 1:10:44 SB 20 Karoline Bjerkeli Grøvdal  NOR 1:10:52 SB 21 Alessandra Aguilar  ESP 1:10:55 PB 22 Veronica Inglese  ITA 1:10:56 PB 23 Lisa Christina Stublic  CRO 1:11:08 24 Chieko Kido  JPN 1:11:16 25 Souad Aït Salem  ALG 1:11:22 26 Gladys Tejeda  PER 1:11:23 NR 27 René Kalmer  RSA 1:11:52 SB 28 Chaofeng Jia  CHN 1:11:58 29 Nadia Ejjafini  ITA 1:12:04 SB 30 Alexandra Louison  FRA 1:12:05 PB 31 Letekidan Gebreaman  ERI 1:12:12 PB 32 Isabellah Andersson  SWE 1:12:15 SB 33 Yinli He  CHN 1:12:17 34 Clara Santucci  USA 1:12:21 PB 35 Barkahoum Drici  ALG 1:12:33 36 Mattie Suver  USA 1:12:41 SB 37 Luula Berhane  ERI 1:12:44 PB 38 Fatna Maraoui  ITA 1:12:49 SB 39 Jessica Draskau-Petersson  DEN 1:12:51 PB 40 Susan Partridge  GBR 1:13:15 41 Verónica Pérez  ESP 1:13:25 PB 42 Yingying Zhang  CHN 1:13:25 43 Linet Chebet  UGA 1:13:27 PB 44 Wendy Thomas  USA 1:14:06 45 Leila Luik  EST 1:14:17 SB 46 Liina Luik  EST 1:14:17 PB 47 Jenna Leigh Challenor  RSA 1:14:19 PB 48 Rina Yamazaki  JPN 1:14:19 49 Veronika Brennhovd Blom  NOR 1:14:21 PB 50 Meixia Zhang  CHN 1:14:23 51 Lena Eliasson  SWE 1:14:27 PB 52 Lavinia Haitope  NAM 1:14:41 PB 53 Katarina Bérešová  SVK 1:15:02 SB 54 Soumaya Boussaïd  TUN 1:15:11 NR 55 Corinne Herbreteau  FRA 1:15:26 56 Chao Yue  CHN 1:15:52 57 Rocío Cántara  PER 1:15:53 PB 58 Elvan Abeylegesse  TUR 1:15:57 SB 59 Louise Langelund Batting  DEN 1:16:17 PB 60 Nicolasa Condori  PER 1:16:34 SB 61 Luminita Georgiana Achim  ROU 1:16:44 PB 62 Bahar Dogan  TUR 1:16:59 63 Nebiat Habtemariam  ERI 1:16:59 SB 64 Volha Krautsova  BLR 1:17:04 SB 65 Anne Holm Baumeister  DEN 1:17:05 SB 66 Cornelia Joubert  RSA 1:17:09 SB 67 Simone Christensen Glad  DEN 1:17:10 PB 68 Marthe Katrine Myhre  NOR 1:17:27 69 Aline Camboulives  FRA 1:17:45 SB 70 Liliana Maria Danci  ROU 1:18:02 SB 71 Tonya Nero  TTO 1:18:25 SB 72 Annemette Aagaard  DEN 1:18:47 SB 73 Nilay Esen  TUR 1:19:07 74 Claudia Paula Todoran  ROU 1:19:09 75 Gabriela Traña  CRC 1:19:24 SB 76 Arndi Háfdórsdóttir  ISL 1:20:01 PB 77 Kit Ching Yiu  HKG 1:20:27 PB 78 Kateryna Karmanenko  UKR 1:20:52 SB 79 Elena Moaga  ROU 1:22:44 SB 80 Giselle Camilleri  MLT 1:23:40 81 Irina Moroz  UZB 1:23:45 PB 82 Martha Ernstsdóttir  ISL 1:24:23 SB 83 Sandrine Kengue  GAB 1:24:36 SB 84 Helen Olafsdóttir  ISL 1:24:40 SB 85 Carlie Pipe  BAR 1:32:57 NR 86 Kathrin Gassner  LIE 1:36:12 PB 87 Pou I Chan  MAC 1:36:34 PB 88 Shamha Ahmed  MDV 1:42:03 NR Vesna Kiradzieva  MKD DNF Nicola Duncan  IRL DNS

Team USA Women after #WHM2014: @laurenkleppin, @runningrookie11, @suver2, @cmaerun26, @AnnieBersagel (photo @d9monti) pic.twitter.com/6Ve65aG66S — David Monti (@d9monti) March 29, 2014 The women’s podium in Copenhagen: Cherono, Ngugi and Kaptich #copenhagen2014 pic.twitter.com/4U30aYB1pl — IAAF (@iaaforg) March 29, 2014 Women’s Team Standings POS Team COUNTRY MARK 1 Kenya Kenya 3:23:05 2 Ethiopia Ethiopia 3:27:05 3 Japan Japan 3:31:33 4 Italy Italy 3:31:57 5 United States United States 3:32:48 6 France France 3:36:21 7 PR of China PR of China 3:37:43 8 Eritrea Eritrea 3:41:58 9 Norway Norway 3:42:43 10 South Africa South Africa 3:43:23 11 Peru Peru 3:43:53 12 Denmark Denmark 3:46:16 13 Turkey Turkey 3:52:06 14 Romania Romania 3:53:58 15 Iceland Iceland 4:09:07