On a wet April morning in Istanbul, Ruth Chepng'etich ran the women’s half marathon faster than any woman before her. She crossed the line in 1:04:02, a world record that cut 29 seconds from the previous mark and brought her close to a barrier no one had yet broken.
A sudden break in the rain
The race began with a tight pack of five world-class runners passing 10 kilometres in 30:21. Chepng'etich, Brigid Kosgei, Yalemzerf Yehualaw, Hellen Obiri and Joan Chelimo Melly matched strides through the chilly, wet streets. Not long after halfway, Melly and Kosgei faded, leaving three to fight for the title.
With only a few kilometres to go, Chepng'etich made the decisive move. She ran away from Yehualaw and Obiri and built a 22-second lead by 20K. She kept pushing to the line, stretching the final margin to 38 seconds over Yehualaw, who finished in 1:04:40.
A third crown, a first record
The performance earned Chepng'etich her third Istanbul Half Marathon title, adding to wins in 2017 and 2019. It also lowered her own course record and beat her personal best by more than a minute. The previous world record of 1:04:31 had been set by Ababel Yeshaneh only a year earlier.
Chepng'etich was already a marathon gold medallist from the tough 2019 World Championships in Doha, where she won in extreme heat. Istanbul showed her speed over the shorter distance and hinted at the historic marathon feats still ahead.
“I am really happy about this amazing result,” she told reporters afterwards. “The world record is something I have been dreaming of for some time and I am so happy to do it on the streets of Istanbul.”
The record stood for less than seven months, until Letesenbet Gidey ran 1:02:52 in Valencia. Chepng'etich’s path was already bending toward a different horizon — three years later she became the first woman to run a marathon inside 2 hours 10 minutes.