Agnes Ngetich Breaks Women-Only Half Marathon World Record

Kenya's Agnes Ngetich ran 1:05:15 in Copenhagen to take one second off Peres Jepchirchir's women-only half marathon world record from 2020.

Kenya's Agnes Ngetich won the women's half marathon at the World Athletics Road Running Championships Copenhagen 26 on Sunday, stopping the clock at 1:05:15 and taking one second off the women-only world record of 1:05:16 set by Peres Jepchirchir at the 2020 world half marathon title race in Gdynia, Poland. The 25-year-old won her second global title of the year, adding the half marathon crown to the world cross-country title she claimed in Tallahassee in January, and she also helped Kenya take the team title with a combined time of 3:17:33.

Ngetich did not ease into the race — she pushed to the front from the outset, covered the first kilometre in around three minutes, and was 26 seconds clear of an eight-strong chase pack by 10km, reached in 30:39. The gap grew to 53 seconds by 15km and 51 seconds at 20km before she made history at the line. World Athletics reports she now holds three world records, adding this mark to her 10km records of 28:46 in a mixed race and 29:27 in a women-only race, and her winning margin over compatriot Veronica Loleo was a commanding 50 seconds.

The finishing order tells the story of a race run at record pace behind Ngetich's aggressive front-running. She passed 5km in 15:12, 15km in 46:17 and 20km in 1:01:56 before crossing in 1:05:15, subject to the usual ratification procedure per World Athletics. Reuters confirms she pushed to the front from the outset on a sunny morning in the Danish capital and led until the end. NBC Sports notes the previous women-only record stood at 1:05:16 from Jepchirchir in 2020, while Ethiopia's Letesenbet Gidey holds the overall women's half marathon record of 1:02:52, set in a mixed-gender race with male pacemakers at Valencia in 2021.

The Copenhagen title caps an extraordinary year for the 25-year-old. World Athletics reports she won her world cross-country title by 42 seconds in Tallahassee, clocked a world-leading 28:58 for 10km in Lille, and ran 8:08.95 for 3000m in Monaco — performances that rank among the fastest in history. With the half marathon world record now hers, the only major prize missing is an individual global title on the track, a goal she described in her own post-race comments to World Athletics.

Behind Ngetich, Veronica Loleo won silver for Kenya in 1:06:05 and Rwanda's Florence Niyonkuru took bronze in a national record of 1:06:08, per World Athletics. Kenya won the team title ahead of the United States (3:19:51) and Ethiopia (3:22:40), and the Americans' fifth-through-seventh finish from Emma Grace Hurley, Weini Kelati and Jess McClain secured that silver medal — a first-time outcome Fast Women highlights as three U.S. women breaking 67 minutes in the same race, a U.S. depth milestone even as Ngetich dominated alone at the front.

Ngetich told World Athletics she will discuss her next steps with her coach but plans to return to track racing in 2027 because there is a World Championships, saying it is her dream to win a gold medal on the track — the only one she is missing. After a season this dominant, the 2027 track season becomes the next stage for a runner now holding world records from 10km through the half marathon.