The half marathon world record now begins with a 56. Jacob Kiplimo of Uganda took a whopping 48 seconds off the previous record Sunday morning at the 2025 Barcelona Half Marathon, clocking 56:42 to become the first man to ever break 57 minutes.
Afterward, he said he never imagined having the race he did: “That’s astonishing.”
Kiplimo’s overall pace Sunday came out to 4 minutes 19.5 seconds per mile.
The previous record of 57:30 was set by Ethiopian star Yomif Kejelcha in 2024 at the Valencia Half Marathon, a record he took from Kiplimo himself by just one second. Kiplimo’s lopping of 48 seconds off Kejelcha’s record was the largest single improvement on the men’s world half marathon record in history, according to World Athletics.
He pulled it off thanks to ideal weather conditions (wind-free and 55 degrees Fahrenheit) and pristine pacing. The 24-year-old was on pace to reclaim his record from the first kilometer Sunday, opening with a 13:34 first 5k and then hitting the gas as he hit 10k in 26:46.
“It has been the perfect race,” Kiplimo told reporters after the race. “Ideal temperature, no wind at all, fantastic circuit — everything went better than expected.”
Kiplimo had already proven his fortitude in the half marathon’s midsection, as he previously set the world record in the road 15k with a time of 40:42 in Nijmegen, Netherlands, in 2024. That time set the record for a standalone 15k, but Kiplimo clocked a 40:27 15k split amid his 57:31 half marathon world record in 2021.
On Sunday, Kiplimo somehow took even more time off that record, hitting 15k at 40:07 as he ran by himself through Barcelona in the second half of Sunday’s race.
In metronome-like, world-class form, Kiplimo ran another 13:35 5k from the 15k to 20k mark, then coasted home in the final mile to rewrite history.
“I wanted to have a great race, but I didn’t expect to break the world record,” he said.
Kiplimo won the 2023 New York City Half Marathon and has represented Uganda at three Olympics, winning bronze in the 10,000m in 2021 and finishing eighth in the event in Paris last summer.
Joyciline Jepkosgei, the Kenyan runner who formerly owned the women’s half marathon world record, won the women’s race in Barcelona on Sunday with a personal-best time of 1:04:13.
Sunday’s world record is the latest in a string of record-breaking performances in world athletics, including Jakob Ingebrigtsen’s world indoor 1500m record and Grant Fisher’s world indoor 3000m and 5000m records.
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(Photo: Lorena Sopena / Europa Press via Getty Images)
