18th IAAF World Half Marathon Championships - Birmingham 2009

News

History of the IAAF World Half-Marathon Championships

05 Oct 2009

By Richard Lewis
In the 17-year history of the IAAF World Half-marathon Championships, Kenya have been the dominant force. Their men have won the race on nine occasions, their women three times – all victories going to the brilliant Tegla Leroupe – while the country has taken the team title on 13 occasions.

But one of the great aspects of this race, which returns to Britain on Sunday in Birmingham, is how global gold has become – particularly in the women’s event. Victory has spread across eight different nations with Lornah Kiplagat, Kenyan-born but a runner for the Netherlands, winning on the last two (or three if you count the event under its other name, the World Road Running Championships).

Triumph turned to tragedy for the first ever winner of the men’s race as the Championships were launched in 1992 in Newcastle, held in conjunction with the Great North Run.

In a time of 60:24, Kenyan Benson Masya broke the world best of 60:55 but the performance did not count for record purposes because the course is slightly downhill.

But, at the age of just 33 in 2003, he died after illness. That first race brought Britain its one of only two winners as Liz McColgan triumphed in 68:53 and it would be another eight years until Paula Radcliffe would follow her.

The best finish by a British man arrived in the second year of the Championships when Carl Thackery was third in Brussels in 61:13, a race rich in significance with Belgian Vincent Rousseau’s win in 61:06.

His triumph made him the first and only man to celebrate victory on home soil in the history of the IAAF World Half-marathon as he beat Australian Steve Moneghetti, the favourite, by four seconds.

Moroccan Khalid Skah, the 1992 Olympic 10,000m champion, won in 1994, and after victories for Moses Tanui, of Kenya, the following year and Italian Stefano Baldini in 1996, a Championship record arrived in Kosice, Slovenia.

Twelve months earlier, Kenya had not even made the team podium, let alone the individual rostrum, but they hit back in style. Shem Kororia led a clean sweep in the men’s race, winning in a Championship record of 59:56 from Tanui, second in 59:58, and Kenneth Cheruiyot, third in 60:00.

To add to the spice in 1997, Leroupe won the women’s event, in a Championship record of 68:14, the first of her three successive victories.

Kenya retained the men’s title in Ulster in 1998 with Paul Koech before fellow countryman Paul Tergat took his gold-medal performances from the World Cross Country Championships onto the road to win the next two, in 2000 being the first man to retain the title.

In Bristol in 2001, having been surprisingly beaten in the 10,000m at the World Championships in Edmonton that summer, Ethiopian Haile Gebrselassie was back in gold medal mood – winning this event for the only time in 60:03.

Kenya’s Paul Kosgei was the next champion followed by teammate Martin Lel in 2003 before in 2004, in the first World Half Marathon Championships held on Asian soil, Paul Kirui kept the country at the helm with victory in New Delhi.

The 2005 race in Edmonton was packed with drama as Qatar’s Mubarak Hassan Shami eased up near the line, thinking gold was his, but Fabiano Joseph, of Tanzania, sprinted past to beat him.

Then came the arrival of Eritrean Zersenay Tadese, who won the 2006 and 2007 World Road Running Championships when the Half-marathon changed names, before taking the title as the competition reverted to its old title 12 months ago when he equalled the event record time.

Radcliffe, who will start among the favourites to win the women’s event on Sunday, has become one of the greatest distance runners in history. Yet in the catalogue of her amazing success, that includes holding the marathon world record for more than six years, her first senior World title came in this competition.

In Veracruz, Mexico, in 2000, Radcliffe won in 69:07, a performance that was quicker than any of the other British men that day. When she retained the title in Bristol the following year, her display was stunning as she won in a Championship record of 66:07 before winning for a third time in Vilamoura, Portugal, in 2003.

In 1993, Portugal’s Conceição Ferreira won her country’s first and only World Half-marathon medal when she took gold in 70:07 while after South African Elana Meyer triumphed the following year, Valentina Yegorova’s success in 1995 remains Russia’s sole individual medal.

At 22, China’s Ren Xiujuan became the youngest ever women’s in 1996 and in 2002 Ethiopian Berhane Adere took herself to the top of podium for the only time, a list of winners that has since included China’s Sun Yinjie in 2004 and Constantina Tomescu, in 2005, the Romanian who progressed to win the Olympic marathon three years later in Beijing.