Kenya's Joyciline Jepkosgei broke the world half marathon record as well as the 10km and 15km marks at the Prague Half Marathon on the way to winning the IAAF Gold Label Road Race in one hour, four minutes and 52 seconds Saturday. The 23-year-old, who was competing in just her fifth half Marathon, clocked splits of 30:05 and 45:37 to improve the 10km and 15km world records. "I didn't know I would break the world record today," said Jepkosgei, whose previous best time was 1:06:08 in this year's Ras Al-Khaimah Half Marathon. "I only wanted to improve my time. This is a surprise for me. The conditions were good for me because I'm used to training at this time of day, in the morning." Defending champion Violah Jepchumba of Kenya finished second in 65:22, with Fancy Chemutai third. Jepkosgei was pushed to her limits by Jepchumba as the pair were separated by one second at the 10km mark, both well inside the previous record of 30:21 set by Paula Radcliffe in 2003. However, Jepkosgei began pulling away from Jepchumba as her lead grew to three seconds at 15km and she crossed the line with 64:52 on the clock to shave 14 seconds from the world half-Marathon record set this year by compatriot Peres Jepchirchir. Ethiopia's Olympic 10,000m bronze medalist Tamirat Tola won the men's race in 59:37. Kenyans Josphat Tanui and Geoffrey Yegon were second and third. Brighton course ‘too short' Organisers of a half marathon on England's south coast said they were "devastated" and apologized after it emerged the course had been 146 meters short for the past three years. UK Athletics contacted Brighton Half Marathon organizers after runners reported their personal tracking devices showed they had not run the full 13.1-mile (21.1-kilometer) distance. An inquiry found the course had somehow lost 146 meters of its length in 2015, prompting annoyed reactions from runners who felt their times for the race were meaningless. "We are devastated that this mistake has happened and apologize unreservedly to all runners who took part in the affected race years," organizers said in a statement released Saturday. Eleanor Davis, who won this year's elite women's race in February, said: "The reason I ran the race was specifically because there was a deadline to get a qualifying time for the London Marathon. "To find out afterward that it counted for nothing was pretty devastating and concerning. But luckily the London Marathon have been really kind and waived it for me so I can compete." — Agencies
