A recap and results from the 2022 Sportisimo Prague Half Marathon – World Athletics Elite Label road race series on Saturday (2), as Keneth Kiprop Renju and Nesphine Jepleting beat their rivals in the cold conditions in Praha.
Victory in the men’s half marathon race went to Renju after he clocked 59:28 to pick up his first half marathon career win. His compatriots Philemon Kiplimo, who was the pre-race favorite finished second in 59:33, and Mathew Kimeli ran 59:46 for third. Read more: Rome Marathon 2022 results; wins for Bekele and Dalasa
“I really liked the race,” said Renju on the World Athletics website. “Even though it was too cold, it was good.
“Even though I didn’t feel pressure on myself, I wanted to win,” added Renju, who fended off the challenge of Kiplimo after the 20km mark.
“The weather caught me by surprise, I didn’t expect it to be so cold. The worst was the headwind, which made it really hard in some moments,” he continued.
The leading runners were hoping to take a crack at lowering the event record of 58:47, which was set by Ethiopia’s Atsedu Tsegay in 2012, but the conditions weren’t ideal for them to take on such a task.
In the meantime, the top five finishers were completed by Kenyans Benard Kimeli, who also crossed the finish line inside 60 minutes, at 59:59, with Weldon Langat running 1:00:57.
“Despite the conditions here, it was fast,” Renju told reporters after the race. “A world record may fall here.”
Meanwhile, Jepleting improved her personal best by almost three minutes on her way to winning her first half marathon title as well. Read more: Results from the 2022 Tokyo Marathon; record times by Kipchoge, Kosgei
The 27-year-old ran steadily throughout the entire race to set up the victory as she broke the tape in 1:06:57 to claim the women’s title ahead of her fellow Kenyan teammates Irene Cheptai and Brenda Jepleting.
Nesphine Jepleting was pleased with her victory run but revealed that she could have gone much faster if the conditions were better.
“I could run faster, but it was too cold and windy,” noted Nesphine Jepleting on the World Athletics website.
“During the race, I doubted I could win. But the mental strength, my head, helped me. In the group we ran until the 12th kilometre, then we accelerated as we wanted.”
Finishing in second place was Cheptai, who clocked 1:07:16, doing so only 13 days after taking the runner-up spot at the United Airlines NYC Half 2022.
Elsewhere, Brenda Jepleting ran 1:08:39 to complete the podium places, ahead of Ethiopia’s Ftaw Zeray (1:08:53) and Italian Sofiia Yaremchuk (1:09:09) in rounding out the top five.
Notably, finishing seventh was former Ukraine long-distance runner Sofiia Yaremchuk – now representing Italy – who said she carried Ukraine in her heart as she ran a personal best of 1:09:09.
“I ran for Ukraine and for all the people and men who are fighting in Ukraine,” she told reporters after the race.
“I want to tell everyone that Ukraine does not want war, the whole world does not want war, we all want peace. I’m happy because I have my new record and I finished with the Ukrainian flag.”
2022 Sportisimo Prague Half Marathon Results
Men’s Results
1 Keneth Kiprop RENJU KEN 59:28:00
2 Philemon KIPLIMO KEN 59:33:00
3 Mathew KIMELI KEN 59:46:00
4 Benard KIMELI KEN 59:59:00
5 Weldon LANGAT KEN 1:00:57
6 Josphat CHUMO KEN 1:01:04
7 Kennedy KIMUTAI KEN 1:01:10
8 Alfred BARKACH KEN 1:01:10
9 Wisley KIBICHII KEN 1:01:41
10 Mogos TUEMAY ETH 1:01:51
11 Kelvin KIBIWOTT KEN 1:01:58
12 Meshack LELGUT KEN 1:02:28
13 Andreas VOJTA AUT 1:03:18
14 Khalid CHOUKOUD NED 1:04:23
15 Thomas TOTH CAN 1:04:32
16 Jiří HOMOLÁČ CZE 1:04:36
17 Marco MOLETTO ITA 1:05:14
18 Mario BAUERNFEIND AUT 1:05:36
19 Karel HUSSAR EST 1:05:47
20 Maximilian ZEUS GER 1:06:10
21 Dominic BERSEE NED 1:06:59
22 Jakub ZEMANÍK CZE 1:07:01
23 Tomáš KŘIVOHLÁVEK CZE 1:07:11
24 Ondřej FEJFAR CZE 1:08:54
25 Martin MISTELBAUER AUT 1:09:00
26 ANDREA ROSTAN ITA 1:09:03
27 Michal STANOVSKÝ CZE 1:10:14
28 Daniel VEJMELKA CZE 1:10:29
29 Simon GONZALEZ ESP 1:10:54
31 Tomas MIKA CZE 1:11:47
32 Brian O’KELLY IRL 1:11:50
Women’s Results
1 Nesphine JEPLETING KEN 1:06:57
2 Irene CHEPTAI KEN 1:07:16
3 Brenda JEPLETING KEN 1:08:39
4 Ftaw ZERAY ETH 1:08:53
5 Sofiia YAREMCHUK ITA 1:09:09
6 Fantu GELASA ETH 1:10:20
7 Nelly JEPCHUMBA KEN 1:10:35
8 Cynthia NOLARI KEN 1:10:46
9 Sheila JEBIWOTT KEN 1:12:10
10 Maria KERRES GER 1:13:39
11 Hana HOMOLKOVÁ CZE 1:20:31
12 Kathrine HØJGAARD DEN 1:20:53
13 Petra KAMÍNKOVÁ CZE 1:21:23
14 Emily SOMERSET DEN 1:21:51
15 Malene MEYER DEN 1:21:58
16 Zuzana RUSÍNOVÁ CZE 1:24:05
17 Hanka HÁLOVÁ CZE 1:24:13
20 Johanka ŠAFRÁNKOVÁ CZE 1:26:05
Continue to follow all the latest marathon and half marathon results and reports by visiting our homepage.
