Almgren outkicks Kipkorir for world half marathon gold in a European record 58:06
The Swede, who began as a 400 m runner, took 35 seconds off his own continental record and moved to ninth all time; Joshua Cheptegei was third in 58:26.
Photograph: Andreas Almgren at the Finland-Sweden international in Stockholm, 2023, by Frankie Fouganthin, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsAndreas Almgren let Kenya do the leading on Sunday morning in Copenhagen and beat them at the end of it. Conner Mantz made an early move and Almgren ran on his shoulder through 3 km in about 8:27. Nicholas Kipkorir, Gideon Rono and Daniel Ebenyo led through 5 km in 13:57 and 10 km in 27:53. By 15 km, in 41:47, it was four: Kipkorir, Almgren, Tadese Worku and Joshua Cheptegei. Worku went at 20 km, passed in 55:20, then Cheptegei, and on the final straight past Parken, with the line in sight, Almgren went by Kipkorir and won by five seconds in 58:06.
That is a European record by 35 seconds, his own, and ninth on the world all-time list. Kipkorir ran 58:11, Cheptegei 58:26 for a lifetime best and his first medal on the road, and Worku 58:35. Rono was fifth in 58:57 as Kenya won the team title from Ethiopia and the United States. Hani Idriss Hersi of Djibouti ran a national record 59:09 in sixth.
Almgren, 31, started out as a 400 m runner. He took world 10,000 m bronze in Tokyo last year and the European 10,000 m title last month, and this was a step towards his marathon debut in New York in November. "Ten years ago, we joked that maybe one day I would run a 5km race," he said in the World Athletics report.
Five seconds, after 21 kilometres of letting someone else lead. The patience is the talent.
Sources: World Athletics; Athletics Weekly.
