The half marathon world record has been shattered, and it now starts with a stunning 56. Ugandan runner Jacob Kiplimo achieved this extraordinary feat on Sunday at the 2025 Barcelona Half Marathon. He finished with an amazing time of 56:42, making him the first man to ever complete the distance in under 57 minutes.
After his race, Kiplimo expressed his surprise, saying, “That’s astonishing.” His pace for the race averaged out to 4 minutes and 19.5 seconds per mile.
The previous record was held by Ethiopian runner Yomif Kejelcha, who clocked in at 57:30 in 2024 at the Valencia Half Marathon. Kiplimo’s improvement of 48 seconds is the largest single drop in the men’s world half marathon record ever recorded, according to World Athletics.
Perfect weather played a big role in Kiplimo’s record-breaking performance. The race conditions were ideal—55 degrees and calm winds. Kiplimo started strong, recording a 5k split of 13:34 and reaching 10k in 26:46.
“It has been the perfect race,” Kiplimo said afterward. “Ideal temperature, no wind at all, fantastic circuit — everything went better than expected.”
Kiplimo is no stranger to records. In 2024, he set the world record for road 15k at 40:42 in Nijmegen, Netherlands. During his previous half marathon record of 57:31 in 2021, he split 15k at 40:27. This time, he outdid himself, reaching 15k at 40:07 while running alone in the later part of the race.
Continuing his impressive pace, Kiplimo ran another solid 5k in 13:35 before gliding through the last mile to cement his place in history.
“I wanted to have a great race, but I didn’t expect to break the world record,” he admitted.
Kiplimo’s accomplishments don’t stop here. He also won the 2023 New York City Half Marathon and has represented Uganda in three Olympics. He earned a bronze medal in the 10,000m in 2021 and finished eighth in the same event in Paris last summer.
In the women’s race on Sunday, Joyciline Jepkosgei from Kenya took home the win with a personal best time of 1:04:13. This latest record adds to a series of impressive performances in track and field, following records set by athletes like Jakob Ingebrigtsen and Grant Fisher in various indoor events.
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