Half marathon world record: Kejelcha's 56:51, the Kiplimo saga, and Gidey's 1:02:52

The men's half marathon world record is 56:51, run by Ethiopia's Yomif Kejelcha at the Buenos Aires Half Marathon on August 23, 2026. It is pending ratification, and it took 29 seconds off Jacob Kiplimo's 57:20 from Lisbon in March 2026. The women's half marathon world record is 1:02:52, set by Ethiopia's Letesenbet Gidey in Valencia on October 24, 2021 — a mark that has now stood for almost five years and that no other woman has come within a minute of.

The half marathon record has had a more complicated eighteen months than any other distance: a 56:42 that everyone saw but the record book refuses, a record holder who lost his mark twice, and the fastest official half ever run by a man who two months earlier ran the second-fastest marathon in history. This guide untangles it. Everything here is current as of September 9, 2026.

The current half marathon world records

How Kejelcha ran 56:51

Yomif Kejelcha spent most of 2026 as a marathoner: his 1:59:41 debut in London on April 26 made him the second man ever under two hours, four months before Buenos Aires. Returning to the half, he ran 56:51 — the first time anyone had broken 57 minutes in conditions that comply with World Athletics record rules.

• Time: 56:51 (2:41.7 per km, 4:20.2 per mile, 22.3 km/h)
• Improvement: 29 seconds on Kiplimo's 57:20
• What it means: a 56:51 half is roughly two 26:57 10Ks back to back, plus a final 1,097 m at the same pace.
• Ratification: pending, as is standard; the ratification process for road records typically takes several months.

Kejelcha had held the record before — 57:30 in Valencia on October 27, 2024 — which is why the Buenos Aires run was widely described as him "regaining" it.

The Kiplimo saga: 56:42, 57:20 and the record that wasn't

Uganda's Jacob Kiplimo is, on the stopwatch, the fastest half marathoner who has ever lived. On February 16, 2025, in Barcelona, he ran 56:42 — 48 seconds under Kejelcha's record at the time, and the first sub-57 by anyone, anywhere.

World Athletics deliberated for almost a year and then, in February 2026, declined to ratify it. The problem was the lead vehicle: broadcast footage showed Kiplimo running for long stretches 10–15 metres behind the pace car, close enough that officials judged he was receiving pacing assistance — and a drafting benefit — that the competition rules do not permit. The 56:42 remains on every "fastest ever" list, with an asterisk, and it is not the world record.

Kiplimo's response was to run 57:20 at the EDP Lisbon Half Marathon on March 8, 2026 — the same course where he first set the record (57:31) in November 2021 — this time with a compliant setup. World Athletics ratified the 57:20 in early September 2026, roughly eleven days after Kejelcha had already run faster in Buenos Aires. Kiplimo has therefore held the ratified record twice and lost it twice, and he is also the third-fastest marathoner in history after his 2:00:28 in London 2026.

How Gidey ran 1:02:52

Letesenbet Gidey's women's record is a different kind of performance: not part of a back-and-forth, just a single outlier that the event has spent five years trying to catch.

• Race: Valencia Half Marathon, October 24, 2021
• Time: 1:02:52 (2:58.8 per km, 4:47.7 per mile)
• Improvement: 70 seconds on Ruth Chepngetich's 1:04:02 from Istanbul in April 2021
• Context: Gidey already held the 5,000m and 10,000m track world records at the time. She remains the only woman ever under 63 minutes, and as of 2026 only around two dozen women have ever broken 65.

The women-only record — for races without male pacemakers — is Peres Jepchirchir's 1:05:16 from the World Half Marathon Championships in Gdynia, Poland, on October 17, 2020.

Half marathon world record progression

Men, from the first sub-59 to today:

Women, the modern era:

Tadese's 58:23 stood for nine years. Everything since has happened in super shoes: the men's record has dropped 92 seconds since 2010 (70 of them since 2019) and the women's 119 seconds since 2017. Valencia and Lisbon, both flat and cool, account for most of the entries.

What half marathon world record pace looks like

For scale: the men's record pace passes 10 km in 26:57, which would have won every Olympic 10,000m final before Paris 2024. Gidey's pace passes 10 km in 29:48, which would have won every women's Olympic 10,000m final except Rio 2016.

Compare that with the half marathon time benchmarks most runners actually chase: a sub-1:30 half is 4:16 per km — a minute and a half per kilometre slower than Kejelcha, and over 56:51 the record pace would lap a 2:00 half marathoner more than 25 times on a 400 m track.

How the half record relates to the marathon record

The half and full marathon records are now held by the same generation, and increasingly by the same people:

• Kejelcha holds the half record (56:51) and is the second-fastest marathoner ever (1:59:41).
• Kiplimo has held the half record twice and is the third-fastest marathoner ever (2:00:28).
• Sabastian Sawe's marathon record of 1:59:30 is two 59:45 halves. Kejelcha's half record is 2 minutes 54 seconds faster than that — a gap of about 4.9%, which is roughly the difference physiologists expect between a well-run half and a well-run marathon at the elite level.

On the women's side the pattern is similar. Ruth Chepngetich's marathon record of 2:09:56 went through halfway in 1:04:16 — only 84 seconds slower than Gidey's half record, in the first half of a marathon. Fotyen Tesfay, who ran 2:10:51 on her marathon debut in March 2026, was one of the three fastest half marathoners in history before she moved up. The full story is in the women's marathon world record explained.

Frequently asked questions

What is the half marathon world record?

Men: 56:51, Yomif Kejelcha, Buenos Aires, August 23, 2026 (pending ratification). Women: 1:02:52, Letesenbet Gidey, Valencia, October 24, 2021.

Why isn't Jacob Kiplimo's 56:42 the world record?

World Athletics declined to ratify the Barcelona 2025 run in February 2026 because Kiplimo ran for long stretches close behind the lead vehicle, which officials ruled amounted to pacing and drafting assistance not permitted under the rules. His 57:20 from Lisbon in March 2026 was ratified instead — and then beaten by Kejelcha.

What pace is the half marathon world record?

Kejelcha's 56:51 is 2:41.7 per km or 4:20.2 per mile (about 22.3 km/h). Gidey's 1:02:52 is 2:58.8 per km or 4:47.7 per mile (about 20.1 km/h).

Has anyone run a half marathon under 57 minutes?

Two men have: Jacob Kiplimo (56:42, Barcelona 2025, not ratified) and Yomif Kejelcha (56:51, Buenos Aires 2026, pending ratification). Kejelcha's is the first sub-57 in record-eligible conditions.

Has any woman run a half marathon under 63 minutes?

Only Letesenbet Gidey, with 1:02:52 in 2021.

Further reading

• Good half marathon times by age and level — where your time sits, from first finish to elite.
• Marathon world records — the men's and women's marathon records and how they were set.
• Fastest marathon times ever — the all-time top 10, including Kejelcha and Kiplimo.
• Race week taper: the 7 days before your race — how to arrive at your own half marathon start line fresh.

Set your own half marathon goal pace, per km or per mile, at runpace.co.