Kamworor, on Sunday, clocked 58:01 minutes to complete the 13.1 miles run, making him the fastest man on earth to run Half-Marathon, so far. He took 17 seconds off the previous record, set by his compatriot Abraham Kiptum in Valencia last year.
In order to achieve the goal, Kamworor sacrificed his chance of representing Kenya at the 2019 IAAF World Championships in Doha, Qatar.
While congratulating him, Eliud Kipchoge-the current marathon world record holder with a time of 2:01:39 hours, says the 26-year old athlete prepared adequately for the competition. “A huge congratulation to Geoffrey Kamworor! So proud to see you run this world record. Great planning, preparations, teammates, coaching and management is equal to record-breaking,” Eliud tweeted.
Kamworor, also competes in cross country and marathon races. He was the 2011 World Junior Cross Country Champion before winning the IAAF World Half Marathon Championships three times in a row from 2014-2018.
Interestingly, the Sunday competition took place in the same city where he won his first of the three consecutive half-marathon world championship titles in 2014.
“It is very emotional for me to set this record. And doing it in Copenhagen, where I won my first world title, adds something to it,” Kamworor told the IAAF.
Meanwhile, Eliud Kipchoge, who ran the fastest ever official marathon last year in Berlin (2:01:39), is on a mission of dipping under two hours in Vienna in October. One of his strategies in a bid to hit the objective is to run behind a group of pacesetters and behind a lead car that will serve as a wind resistor.