Yalemzerf Yehualaw nearly breaks her world record in bizarre Valencia 10K

As most eyes in North America were on Sunday’s Houston Half Marathon, the women’s 10K world record holder, Yalemzerf Yehualaw of Ethiopia, chased her record in Valencia, Spain. Yehualaw came within four seconds of her world record of 29:14, despite a bizarre start to the race.

🤯🤯 Scènes surréalistes au départ du @10KValencia ce matin ! pic.twitter.com/4D9i6JaKA6

— RUN’IX (@RUN_IX) January 15, 2023

A group of runners at the front tripped and fell within the first 100m metres, resulting in many runners getting run over and trampled. Luckily, Yehualaw was able to get around the disruption, but her first 5K  (14:47) was well below world record pace. She closed the final 5K in 14:31, but it wasn’t enough, as she crossed the finish line in 29:18 to win the women’s race. 

Her time was still the second fastest time ever over the 10K distance.

Yalemzerf Yehualaw misses her world 10km record by just four seconds in Valencia as she runs 29:18.

The Ethiopian is planning to defend her London Marathon title in April. @10KValencia pic.twitter.com/tp6yiM3SwR

— AW (@AthleticsWeekly) January 15, 2023

Last October, Yehualaw won the 2022 London Marathon in her first major marathon, running the third-fastest mark in the event’s history (2:17:26). Yehualaw will return to the 2023 London Marathon this spring to defend her title. 

By the looks of the video, several runners who were jostling for position seem to have triggered the fall, impacting many contenders. European 3,000m steeplechase medallist Yohanes Chiappinelli of Italy and three-time British Olympian Steph Twell both got caught up in the mess, and pointed the blame at race organizers.

It was dangerous before the start and anticipated this would happen. I hope a review happens & atheltes remain under the organisations duty of care to ensure they recover sufficiently.

— Steph Twell (@StefApril) January 15, 2023

The Valencia 10K is known for being one of the world’s fastest races. The two fastest men’s times in history have been run there, as well as five of the top 10 women’s times.

Organizers released a statement on the situation on Sunday afternoon:

“We regret any trouble this incident may have caused to everyone involved. The safety of the participants is the most important thing. The organizers arranged a carefully distributed exit so that runners could be placed according to their marks. However, not everything has gone well. Due to the density of runners, we absolutely understand that we must increase the improvement measures again at this point. We will study from now on the possible changes in the start for the welfare and safety of the runners, which is our maximum interest.”

This is the second time we’ve seen disorganization at an elite start in the last month. At the Corrida Pedestre Internationale de Houilles 10K in Paris, France, hundreds of athletes fell in a matter of seconds from a tree in the middle of the course. 

A simple fix for this problem would be to stagger the elites based on their entry time or to move the start line to a broader road. 

In the men’s race, Kenya’s Weldon Langat won in a world-leading time of 26:55. Langat competed for Kenya at the 2022 Tokyo Olympics in the men’s 10,000m, where he placed 20th in 28:41.