This Sunday, Kenyan Joyciline Jepkosgei broke the record for the eDreams Half Marathon Barcelona by Brooks 2024 with a time of 1:04:27, the sixth fastest in history, and thus surpassed the mark set last year by her compatriot Irine Kimais ( 1:04:37).

In the men’s category, Kibiwott Kandie, also a Kenyan, fulfilled the predictions and was declared the winner with a time of 59:20, which, however, was not enough for him to break the test record (58:53) on a conditional day. by the wind.

Jepkosgei, who last year broke her personal best in Barcelona despite finishing in second position, this time dominated the race and finished ahead of the Ethiopian Senbere Teferi (1:04:38) and the Kenyan Gladys Chepkurui (1:06:32).

For his part, Kandie, triple winner of the Valencia Half Marathon and holder of the second best world record in the discipline (57:32, Valencia 2020), was accompanied on the podium by the Swede Andreas Almgren (59:22) and the Kenyan Roncer Kipkorir Konga (59:27).

The other protagonist of the day was the wind, which blew strongly from the mountain towards the sea and hit sideways for almost the entire race, and practically in the face for most of the first section and, later, when passing through the front maritime.

Although it was not a favorable day to break records, the favorites took the lead from the start, with Kandie integrated into the group of ten escapees in the lead, while among the athletes it was Jepkosgei and Teferi who stood out alone, more sheltered from the wind among other runners.

The men’s elite reached the fifth kilometer on the Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes with a time of 14:22, 16 seconds slower than the test’s record reference, while the women’s elite set the previous edition’s mark (15:22). twenty).

After passing the tenth kilometer, at the turn from Llacuna Street towards Perú Street (27:56, 16), the Kenyan Roncer Kipkorir Konga opened a gap with an unexpected attack and consolidated the lead on Diagonal Avenue with the wind of face, reducing the disadvantage with respect to the test record (41:52, 09) and with eight seconds of margin over the chasing group.

Kandie set out alone to hunt for the escapee after kilometer 17, caught him in the 19th at the height of Litoral Avenue and passed him definitively with a change of pace before heading up Marina Street.

Although he crossed the finish line alone, the Kenyan paid for the effort and was almost caught by the Swede Almgren, who took second place from Kipkorir Konga with a change of pace in the final stretch.

In the women’s event, the leaders set a very high pace that reduced the race record by 19 seconds at the 10th kilometer (30:19) and by 26 after the 15th (46:01), with Jepkosgei slightly ahead. ahead of Teferi, who could not keep up with the winner’s pace and crossed the finish line eleven seconds later.

Beyond the elite runners, the 34th edition of the Barcelona Half Marathon went down in history as the most massive, after setting a new participation record in Spain with more than 28,000 people and being the second largest in Europe, only by behind Berlin (35,000).