Kejelcha Runs 56:51, First Man Under 57 in the Half

Yomif Kejelcha ran into the record books again on Sunday, becoming the first man under 57 minutes in a record-eligible half marathon. The Ethiopian stopped the clock at 56:51 at the Media Maratón Ciudad de Buenos Aires, reclaiming the standard from Jacob Kiplimo.

A solo run splits the record

Kejelcha broke clear of the lead group near the seven-kilometre mark. From there the race became a lone time trial through the Argentine capital. He covered the 21.1 kilometres at roughly 2:42 per kilometre.

Two men, one barrier

His gun time lowered Kiplimo’s pending 57:20 from Lisbon by 29 seconds. Kejelcha first held this record with 57:30 in Valencia in October 2024. Kiplimo had also run a faster 56:42 in Barcelona that could not be ratified.

“To be honest, I wasn’t expecting a world record,” Kejelcha told reporters afterwards. “I was hoping to break the course record, although one of my goals was to go under 57 minutes.”

A debut that set the stage

Kejelcha, 29, arrived in Buenos Aires during an extraordinary season. In April he ran 1:59:41 on his marathon debut in London, the fastest debut in history and the second sub-two-hour marathon ever. He finished second that day but called the near-miss “not too far for me to break again.”

Four months later, he answered with a world record.