COPENHAGEN (20-Sep) — Agnes Ngetich absolutely destroyed a high-class field in the half-marathon this morning at the second World Athletics Road Running Championships. The 25-year-old Kenyan, who already earned a world title earlier this year at the World Athletics Cross Country Championships, ran alone through the streets of the Danish capital to a women’s-only world record of 1:05:15. She won by a hefty 50 seconds, and became the first woman in history to win both the world cross country and half-marathon titles in the same year.
But Ngetich endured a painful final 400 meters. She had the gold medal in the bag, but she wasn’t sure if she could eclipse Peres Jepchirchir’s women-only world record of 1:05:16. With the sun at her back, she gave it everything she had in the final push to the line.
“I thought I missed the world record by two seconds or three seconds,” Ngetich told Race Results Weekly while wrapped in a Kenyan flag. “It’s me alone and a strong wind coming to us. I was like, let me just try.”
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Her one-second margin over Jepchirchir’s record was worth a USD 50,000 bonus from World Athletics which will be added to her first place prize money of USD 30,000 (she will surely receive an additional bonus from her kit sponsor, adidas). Winning the race was more important, she said, but getting the record was a nice bonus.
“If I don’t get it, it’s OK; I have a medal already,” Ngetich recalled telling herself in those final meters. “I’m so happy because I still got the world record.”
Ngetich used the same simple strategy today that she employed to become world cross country champion in Tallahassee last January: push right from the gun. She split the first kilometer in three minutes flat, and went through 5-K in 15:12. She already had a ten-second gap on her nearest chaser by that point, Florence Niyonkuru of Rwanda, a gap which would grow to 26 seconds by 10-K (30:39). The athletes in the chase pack –eight women strong– quickly began to focus on each other, instead. Ngetich was just too far ahead.
“I noticed Agnes taking off but I knew I had to stick to my own pace,” said Ngetich’s teammate Veronica Loleo. “She was going too fast from the very beginning. So I decided to go with the pack.”
Unaware of how far ahead she was, Ngetich kept pressing. She stayed focused on her splits, and imagined what it would be like to earn another gold medal.
“Adding another medal to my gallery, I’m so happy,” she said. “I’m so grateful.”
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The battle for the silver and bronze medals was intense. That chase pack of eight women at 10-K dwindled to just three by 20-K: Niyonkuru, Loleo, and another Kenyan, Daisilah Jerono. Americans Emma Grace Hurley, Weini Kelati, and Jess McClain were just a few seconds back (as a team they were in the silver medal position behind Kenya). In the final 100 meters before the finish, Loleo was able to sprint away from Niyonkuru to take the silver in 1:06:05. Niyonkuru was already clear of Jerono, and got the bronze in a national record 1:06:08.
“I didn’t expect to be on the podium, so for me I’m very happy,” said Loleo. “It is my first championships. This first championship medal I will award to my family and coach.”
Hurley, who is training for her marathon debut at the Bank of America Chicago Marathon on October 11, finished an impressive fifth in 1:06:23. Her mark was not only a personal best, but also a USA national record for an all-women’s race. Kelati, the USA open record holder, ran 1:06:35 for sixth, and McClain got seventh in a personal best 1:06:53.
“I’m very excited,” said Hurley, who also owns the national record for 8-K on the roads. “I was super-focused on being in the top 10 today, and it’s exciting to come away with a women’s record as well. I have been so happy all week just to be here, and I was so excited for the opportunity to race against the best of the best.”
Remarkably, both Hurley and McClain were in danger of being left off the team after they were misdirected off course while leading at the national half-marathon championships last March in Atlanta which was used as the team selection race. But thanks to behind-the-scenes work by USATF, the United States was allowed to enter a larger team for these championships where Hurley, McClain and Ednah Kurgat (the three misdirected athletes) could join the other women who were selected based on the official order of finish (Team USATF was still limited to four athletes who were eligible to score).
“It was really important to us to send the strongest possible team to compete against the best in the world here today,” said Jay Holder, USATF’s communications chief. He continued: “We wanted to send our strongest team, but we wanted to honor our selection process. So, we worked hand-in-hand with World Athletics, and they worked really hard to help us achieve those goals.”The official team results had Kenya with the gold medal (3:17:33 total time for their best three finishers), USA second (3:19:51), and Ethiopia third (3:22:40).
