Kenyan reigning World cross-country champion, Geoffrey Kipsang Kamworor, won the men’s race at the IAAF/Cardiff University World Half Marathon Championships in Cardiff, Wales on Saturday March 26, 2016.
[link id=”825″ tax=”post_tag” text=”Geoffrey Kamworor”] weathered a fall at the start and then staged a brilliant recovery in heavy rains to retain his world half marathon title in 59:10, two seconds slower than he was in Copenhagen in 2014.
The Kenyan thus became the first runner to win back-to-back titles since [link id=”401″ tax=”post_tag” text=”Zersenay Tadese”] in 2009, but missing the championship record of 58:59 held by the Eritrean.
Kamworor’s compatriot [link id=”911″ tax=”post_tag” text=”Bedan Karoki”] clocked 59:36 to take the silver medal while Briton Mohammed Farah managed to edge Ethiopian[link id=”912″ tax=”post_tag” text=” Abayneh Ayele”] for bronze, with both men timed at 59:59.
Ethiopia’s [link id=”864″ tax=”post_tag” text=”Tamirat Tola”] finished in fifth place in a personal best time of 1:00.06 while Simon Cheprot of Kenya clocked 1:00:12 in sixth.
“It was really tough after that fall to catch up but I fought hard,” said Kamworor about his fall at the start of the race. “I am very happy to win again. It puts me in a good place for the 10,000m in Rio.”
[link id=”81″ tax=”category” text=”Kenya “]regained the men’s team title ahead of the [link id=”82″ tax=”category” text=”Ethiopia”], while defending champions [link id=”106″ tax=”category” text=”Eritrea”] – weakened by the absence of star names such as Zersenay Tadese, Samuel Tsegay and Ghirmay Ghebreslassie – settled for bronze.
Results