The 2020 World half marathon bronze medallist champion, Yalemzerf Yehualaw will defend her title at the Antrim Coast Half Marathon which according to the organisers they promise the course will be accurate this time after the 2021 short-course.
The 22 year-old last September set what appeared to be a world record of 1:03.43 before it transpired the course was 54 metres short. Then, in the Great Ethiopian Run this month, she seemingly clocked an African all-comers’ record of 30:14 at high altitude in Addis Ababa, only to see the time adjusted to 31:17 due to a timing error.
Yehualaw hopes things will start going in her favor this year and on August 28 she competes again in Antrim Coast Half Marathon, a World Athletics Elite Label race.
The race director James McIlroy said: ‘The one name we wanted back after last year’s unratified world record was Yalemzerf – and to get this news at the beginning of the season means so much. She loves the course, the people and the support she got last year along the route really spurred her on, so to have her confirm that she’s returning to the province is very special.
“As it stands, she has run four of the seven fastest all-time half marathons and just last week she ran the fastest ever 10km at altitude in winning the Great Ethiopian Run against some of the best distance runners in the world. At 22 years old she’s got so much more to come.”
Yehualaw’s ratified half-marathon best is 1:03.51 that she set in Valencia last year. Her fellow country-mate Letesenbet Gidey is the only one athlete has run quicker over the 13.1-mile distance when she set the world record-hold over the distance of 1:02.52 that she also set in Valencia last year.
Yalemzerf Yehualaw’s progression
(Half Marathon)
2019: 1:06.01
2020: 1:04.46
2021: 1:03.44
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