Kenyan breaks 10K, 15K, 20K and half-marathon world records in same race

Joyciline Jepkosgei of Kenya took an aggressive approach at the Prague Half-Marathon in the Czech Republic on April 1 breaking four world records. The 23-year-old took the pace out hard from the start and went on the break the 10K, 15K and 20K world records before becoming the first woman to run sub-65:00 in the half-marathon. She won the Prague Half in 1:04:52.

Before Saturday, Kenya’s Peres Jepchirchir, the winner of the Ottawa 10K in 2016, was the world record holder in the women’s half-marathon. She ran 65:06 in February. FloTrack reports that Jepkosgei’s performance on Saturday came with a 100,000 Euro payday for setting multiple world records within the same race.

Jepkosgei went through 10K in 30:05 (previous best 30:21 by Paula Radcliffe), 15K in 45:37 and 20K in 1:01:25. Her 1:04:52 half-marathon time is approximately 3:04 per kilometre pace.

According to the IAAF, all world records are subject to the “usual ratification procedures.” Note that separate world records are kept for road racing and track.

Photo gallery from the Sportisimo Prague Half Marathon 2017 here: https://t.co/MfCvBq9YF8 ? #PragueHalf pic.twitter.com/jrbwZpwYf8

— RunCzech (@RunCzech) April 1, 2017

Olympic 10,000m bronze medallist Tamirat Tola won the men’s race in 59:37, more than a minute off the men’s world record of 58:23.

Galen Rupp, who some were predicting to break the American half-marathon record of 59:43, ran 61:59 for 11th as he builds for the Boston Marathon in three weeks. According to David Monti, he had “foot discomfort” during the race. Jordan Hasay, who will to run Boston, became the third fastest American on a record-legal 21.1K course running 67:55. Both run for the Nike Oregon Project, the same training group as Mo Farah and Canadian Cam Levins.