Rising Ethiopian star Yalemzerf Yehualaw broke the women’s world record in the 10 km road race clocking 29:14 at the World Athletics Label road race held on Sunday in the Spanish coastal city of Castellón.
In doing so, the world half marathon bronze medalist in 2020 improved the ratified record of 29:43 by Joyciline Jepkosgei in 2017 and the yet-to-be-ratified mark of 29:38 set last year by Bahrain’s Kalkidan Gezahegne. She also becomes the first woman in history to dip under the 29:30 and 29:20 barriers on the roads.
Running at an average of nearly 2:55 per kilometer, Yehualaw broke her personal best by more than two minutes over the distance to post a record 10K time.
The men’s race was won by Kenya’s Ronald Kwemoi in a course record of 27:16 ahead of his brother Samwel Chebolei (27:18) while Ethiopia’s Tadese Takele completed the podium in 27:20.
In the absence of pacemakers, the leading trio ran together throughout. Chebolei, fresh from convincing wins at the Kenyan Cross Country Championships and the Cross Country Tour Gold meeting in Eldoret, took on most of the pacing duties with Kwemoi and steeplechaser Takele tucked behind.