World Half Women’s Preview: Is This the Largest Women’s Half Marathon...

October was quite a month, wasn’t it? We had a big marathon. We have had world records. And this weekend over 250 athletes will descend in the Polish city of Gdynia on the southern tip of the Baltic Sea for one of the most anticipated World Athletics Half Marathon Championships in recent times.

The excitement for this year’s World Cup is high not only for what it represents – the sport’s first world championships since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic – but also for the participants. The women’s race is highlighted by a classic battle between Ethiopia and Kenya. For Ethiopia: world record holder Ababel Yeshaneh and reigning world champion Netsanet Gudeta. For Kenya: former world record holder Joyciline Jepkosgei and 2016 World Half Champion Peres Jepchirchir, fresh from a 65:34 world record for women only in Prague last month. Sparks will fly.

The men’s race consists of Uganda Joshua Cheptegeiwho will make his half marathon debut after breaking world records at 5,000 and 10,000 meters, trying to become just the second man to win the global title on the track, on the road and in cross country. Compatriot Jacob Kiplimo – who ran 7:26 and 12:48 this year on the track – is also making his debut, hoping to help Cheptegei repeat his 2-1 result at last year’s Cross Country World Championships. Be in the way: Kibiwott Kandiewho could be the next big Kenyan star and one of the best marathon runners in the world Birhanu Legese of Ethiopia.

The women’s preview is below. The men’s preview is here: World Half Men’s Preview: Joshua Cheptegei makes his debut against the next great Kenyan Kibiwott Kandie.

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Race details below, followed by a preview of each race.

Was: 2020 World Athletics Half Marathon Championship
Where: Gdynia, Poland
When: Saturday 17th October. Women’s races at 5:00 a.m. EDT, men’s races at 6:30 a.m. EDT.

* Entries * Route overview * All LRC World Half coverage

I wish you were here

Before we go to this year’s race, let’s pour one out for some of the people who won’t be in half the world this year …

• Sifan Hassan: Hassan set a one-hour world record on September 4th and ran 29:36 for 10,000 meters on Saturday (# 4 all-time). She was supposed to run World Half as well, but strangely withdrew on Tuesday.
  “The season was short, but the run-up was long,” she said. “That’s why I decided to take a rest and concentrate on the next year.”
• Anyone from the US, Canada, Japan, Australia or New Zealand: Neither of these countries will be sending teams to Poland this weekend, ostensibly for health safety reasons – although many American and Australian athletes have attended track meetings in Europe this summer.

The USATF has never publicly announced that it will not send a team. LetsRun reached out to them on Tuesday to make a statement and a spokesman sent the USATF email to the athletes to inform them of their September 9 decision:

In just over five weeks, the pandemic doesn’t seem to be on the decline. According to the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. is still on a level 3 travel report for Poland, which means U.S. citizens should reconsider traveling to Poland. While we believe the event can and will be held with protocols that reduce the risk of virus transmission, we address international travel as well as the lack of a “championship bubble” for accommodation, meals, etc. on-site. The consensus opinion of our The COVID-19 Working Group should currently not put athletes, coaches and staff (and their relatives / staff, etc. on their return) at additional risk for international travel. Accordingly, we will not send a team to Poland for this year’s World Half Marathon.

While the decision is a blow to Americans hoping to take advantage of one of the few remaining opportunities in elite competition, their absence won’t have much of an impact on the results. In 23 editions of the World Half, the United States has only one medal. That was Dathan RitzenheinBronze in 2009, the last time an American made it into the top 10.

Women’s race: who will appear in the battle of the world record holders?

There are officially two world records in the women’s half marathon – one for a women-only race and one for a mixed-sex race – and in the past four years those records have been broken a total of six times by four women. All four of these women will be running in Gdynia on Saturday, making this one of the biggest – if not the Largest half marathon fields of all time. You can advocate all four to win, so let’s do just that.

Ababel Yeshaneh, Ethiopia, 29 years old, 64:31 pb

The case for you: As the current mixed-sex WR owner, Yeshaneh has the fastest Pb of all in the field. But it’s still strange that Yeshaneh is the WR owner considering that almost no one heard of her before her world record in February. Bloody hell after this I still bet there aren’t many LRC visitors who remember their name.

But what she did at RAK is no joke, she handed over the marathon WR owner Brigid Kosgei their first loss in 17 months and 64:31. Yeshaneh hasn’t raced since then, but if she’s in similar shape she’ll be hard to beat.

The case against them: Consistency. Yeshaneh has been a solid runner for a long time – she ran 30:35 and was 9th at the 2013 Worlds in the 10k – but only recently joined the real elite, finishing 2nd in the Chicago Marathon last year me generally oppose the idea of ​​”flukes” running – the clock doesn’t lie – but Yeshaneh doesn’t have many big wins on her résumé.

Peres Jepchirchir, Kenya, 27 years old, 65:06 pb

The case for you: We recently had evidence that Jepchirchir is super fit: she ran a women-only WR 65:34 in Prague six weeks ago and won by 93 seconds. Jepchirchir was the best half marathon runner in the world a few years ago, won the World Half in 16 and set a WR of 65:06 in 17, but did not race at all from February 2017 to November 2018 after her birth daughter Natalia. Now that Jepchirchir 19 has been brought up to date, it now seems as good or better than it was before the child.

The case against them: Jepchirchir has a great shot at the win, but the main argument against them would be that 65:34, while fast, is still a long way from 64:31. Of course, Jepchirchir had no male pacemakers in their course.

Joyciline Jepkosgei, 26 years, Kenya, 64:51 pb

The case for you: Jepkosgei was LetsRun.com’s runner of the year in 2017 after breaking world records in the 5K, 10K, 15K, 20K and half marathons. She hasn’t quite reached these heights on shorter distances in the past three years, but she was runner-up in the World Half in 2018 and ran 2:22 to win the NYC Marathon on her debut last fall. She’s still a total stallion.

The case against them: Jepkosgei has not driven since February and has not run faster than 66:56 in the half since October 2017.

Netsanet Gudeta, 29 years, Ethiopia, 65:45 pb

The case for you: Gudeta set a (since broken) women-only WR of 66:11 to win the final edition of those championships on a windy day in Valencia, then slashed her personal best at RAK to 65:45 last year.

The case against them: Gudeta has not driven since January. And despite her Pb at RAK, she lost all four of her half marathons in 2019. Most alarmingly, it wasn’t even close in the last two, running at 68:04 and 68:35 in Istanbul and Valencia at 66:00 in races where the winners broke.

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The most likely scenario is that one of the women mentioned above wins gold – you can choose either Yeshaneh or Jepchirchir as favorites depending on whether you value excellence more than current performance. But there is depth beyond the WR holder. Kenya Rosemary Wanjiru was fourth in Worlds in the 10k last year and ran 29:50 on the streets in January (# 4 all-time). And although she finished over a minute behind Yeshaneh at RAK in February, she still managed to run 65:34 – the fastest debut half of all time.

Ethiopia now boasts Zeineba Yimer, a 2:19 marathon runner who finished fifth in 2018 and was the winner of the Ethiopian exams, Yalemzerf Yehualaw – although Yehualaw was only 6th at RAK in February. Outside East Africa, Bahrain Eunice room (4th in 2018) and Israel Lonah Chemtai Salpeter are the marquee names. Saltpetre, in particular, has made incredible strides in recent years. She put Pbs in the 5 km (14:59), 10 km (31:15), half (66:09) and marathon (2:19:46) races in 2019, before becoming the race of her life in March 2020 competed and won the race Tokyo Marathon in 2:17:45.

JG forecast: 1. Jepchirchir 2. Yeshaneh 3. Wanjiru

More: World Half Men preview: Joshua Cheptegei debuts against next great Kenyan Kibiwott Kandie.