Kandie leads impressive Valencia Half Marathon line-up

Kenyan runners Kibiwott Kandie, Sebastian Sawe, and Daniel Mateiko are the top favorites at the 2022 Valencia Half Marathon Trinidad Alfonso.

The men’s line-up features six athletes with a PB under the 59 minutes barrier and eleven with best times under the 1-hour barrier.

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Kandie set the world record with 57.32 in Valencia two years ago. The record was later improved by Jacob Kiplimo, who clocked 57.31 in Lisbon in March 2021. Kandie won the silver medal at the World Half Marathon Championships in Gdynia in 2020 in 58:54 and the bronze medal in the 10000m at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham in a lifetime best of 27:20.34. He dipped under the 59 minutes barrier twice more, clocking 58:38 in Prague and 58:38 in Ras Al Khaimah in 2020. 

Sawe won two half marathon races in Seville in 59:02 and Rome Ostia in a lifetime best of 58:02 earlier this year. Last September, the Kenyan athlete set the national record of 21.250 meters in the one-hour race coming close to breaking the world record at the Memorial Van Damme in Brussels. 

Mateiko finished third in two half marathon races in Valencia in 58:26 and in Copenhagen in 59:25 in 2021. The Kenyan athlete set solid PBs on the track, clocking 13:13.45 in the 5000m in Nairobi last May and 27:03.94 in Hengelo in 2021. 

The other top names in the field are Kennedy Kimutai, who set a PB of 58:28 in Valencia in 2021, Rodgers Kwemoi (PB 58:30 in Ras Al Khaimah in 2022), Milkesa Mengesha, who won the world under 20 cross country title in Ahrus 2019 and finished first at the Copenhagen Half Marathon in his PB of 58:58, Yomif Kejelcha, who won the world silver medal in the 10000m in Doha 2019 and finished first at the Valencia Half Marathon in a lifetime best of 59:05, Bernand Ngeno, second placer in Valencia in 2019 in 59:07, Julien Wanders from Switzerland, who broke the European record with 59:13 in Ras Al Khaimah in 2019, Alfred Barkach from Kenya, who clocked 59:36 in Herzogenaurach last April, and Ronald Kirui, who clocked a lifetime best of 59:38 in Madrid in 2021, and Callum Hawkins from Great Britain, who improved his PBs to 1:00:00 in the Marugame Half Marathon and 2:08:14 at the London Marathon in 2019.  

Tadese Worku from Ethiopia will make his half marathon debut. The 20-year-old Ethiopian runner won the world under 20 gold medal in the 3000m in Nairobi in 2021 and set the 10 km national record on the road clocking 26:56 in Herzogenaurach. He also clocked 26:45.91 in the 10000m in Hengelo last June.

Women's Race:

In the women’s race, Kenyan runners Vicoty Chepngeno, Margaret Chelimo, and Ethiopia’s Hawi Feysa will start as the favorites on the fast Valencia course, where Letesenbet Gidey set the world record with 1:02:52 last year. 

Chepngeno won two half marathon races in Philadelphia in 1:07:22 and in Houston in her lifetime best of 1:05:03. 

Chelimo won two world medals claiming silver in the 5000m in Doha in 2019 and bronze in the 10000m in Eugene in 2022. The Kenyan athlete set her PBs of 8:21.53 in the 3000m in Paris 2021, 14:27.12 in the 5000m in 2021 and 30:10.07 in the 10000m at the World Championships in Eugene. 

Feysa improved her PB to 1:05.41 at the Copenhagen Half Marathon in 2021. The Ethiopian runners ran very fast on the track in the 3000m, with 8:38.48 in Lausanne and 14:33.66 in the 5000m in Oslo in 2022. 

Konstanze Klosterhalfen will make her debut in the half marathon after a successful season in which she won the European gold medal in the 5000 meters in Munich. Klosterhalfen also won the world bronze medal in the 5000m in Doha in 2019 and two European indoor silver medals in the 1500m in Belgrade in 2017 and in the 3000m in Glasgow in 2019. The German athlete has recently trained in Kenya to prepare for her debut in the half marathon. 

Konstanze Klosterhalfen: “I don’t know what to expect. For me, there is also the challenge of extensive half marathon training, but it’s working, and it gives me extra motivation”. 

The Valencia Half Marathon, a World Athletics elite label road race, takes place on Sunday, October 23.

Men's and Women's Elite Field