Ethiopian Yalemzerf Yehualaw broke the women’s world record in the half marathon

Ethiopian Yalemzerf Yehualaw won the half marathon at the Antrim Coast event in Northern Ireland and smashed the world record. She clocked 63 minutes and 43 seconds which cut 19 seconds off the previous mark set by Kenyan Ruth Chepngetich earlier this year, as well as 57 seconds off her personal best set in Istanbul earlier this year.

The Ethiopian was under world-record pace all the way.

Yalemzerf Yehualaw finished more than six minutes ahead of Kenya’s Vane Nyamboke (69:44) with English woman Rose Harvey a further 32 seconds back in third.

Rose Harvey’s compatriot Georgie Schwiening was fourth in 71:12 as Northern Irish pair Fionnuala Ross (73:09) and Ann-Marie McGlynn (73:12) were fifth and sixth.

Yalemzerf Yehualaw Densa (born 3 August 1999) is an Ethiopian long-distance runner. In 2019, she represented Ethiopia at the 2019 African Games held in Rabat, Morocco and she won the women’s half marathon event. She also set a new African Games record in this event of 1:10:26. In the same year, she also won the Great Ethiopian Run held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia setting a new course record of 31:55. In 2020, she competed in the women’s half marathon at the 2020 World Athletics Half Marathon Championships held in Gdynia, Poland.