The three-time Olympic champion Kenenisa Bekele won the London half-marathon on Sunday, March 1st, 2020. Kenenisa broke last year's course record held by British distance runner Mo Farah, finishing the race in one hour and 22 seconds. (Photo: @OfficialBigHalf/Twitter)
AFP
LONDON — Ethiopia’s Kenenisa Bekele broke Mo Farah’s course record as he won the London half-marathon on Sunday in a time of one hour and 22 seconds.
Bekele took 1min 18sec off the record set in 2019 by British distance great Farah, who missed this year’s edition with an Achilles injury.
Britain’s Christopher Thompson finished second, with Jake Smith third.
Sunday’s event served as a warm-up event for the full London Marathon on April 26. That race is set to see Bekele go up against Eliud Kipchoge, the reigning Olympic champion from Kenya, as the two fastest marathon runners of all time meet in the British capital.
“The new course record is a great bonus. I wasn’t focused on time today, I just wanted to win,” Bekele, three times an Olympic gold medallist on the track, told the BBC.
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Related:
The Vitality Big Half 2020: Kenenisa Bekele breaks Mo Farah’s course record (BBC)
Kenenisa Bekele to face Eliud Kipchoge in London Marathon for the ages (The Guardian)
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