BUta Pippig was particularly quick with her “Congratulations” after Melat Kejeta’s sensational race at the Half Marathon World Championships in Gdynia. “You did a great job! A mega run! ”, The former world class runner, who has been replaced as the German record holder, posted on Instagram. The 28-year-old Kejeta from the Kassel running team won the World Championship silver in 1:05:18 hours on Saturday and cracked the 25-year-old Pippig record (1:07:58). In addition, the native Ethiopian undercut the European record for all-women races.
“I am very happy and am pleased with this good performance,” said Kejeta, who has had German citizenship since March 2019, to the online portal “Leichtathletik.de”. “Sure, I wanted to do my best, but I didn’t expect this result.”
Only Peres Jepchirchir from Kenya was faster than her, who improved the world record for all-women races in 1:05:16 hours on the course on the Polish Baltic coast. Kejeta also stayed a hundredth of a second below the old record of Yalemzerf Yehualaw from Ethiopia, who made a wrong turn in what was once Gdynia 100 meters from the finish because she briefly followed the cyclist leaving the route and leading the group.
The marathon national trainer was also enthusiastic about the great moment for German athletics. “1:05:18 hours, that’s a number and absolute world class,” said Katrin Dörre-Heinig. “I was particularly impressed by the courage to keep up with this high pace from the start. Hats off, she did everything right. “
Like Dörre-Heinig’s daughter Katharina Steinruck (formerly Heinig), Kejeta undercut the Olympic standard for the 2021 Games in Tokyo in her marathon debut in 2019 in Berlin in 2:23:57 hours. She should not only have the ticket for this safe: Now she is also one of the favorites for the medal race in Sapporo. In addition to Kejeta, the other German starters also ensured good performances and in the end result third place in the team competition. As the second best German, Laura Hottenrott from Wattenscheid ran in a personal best of 1:10:49 hours in 26th place.
Jacob Kiplimo became world champion in men. The 19-year-old from Uganda ran a world class time in 58:49 minutes. The Kenyan Kibiwott Kandie came in second (58:54 minutes) ahead of Amedework Walelegn (59: 08 / Ethiopia). The 10,000 meter world record holder Joshua Cheptegei (Uganda) finished fourth in 59:21 minutes on his debut. The best German was Simon Boch (LG Telis Finanz Regensburg), who finished 35th in 1:01:36 hours. The multiple German champion Amanal Petros (TV Wattenscheid, who suffered from a side stitch early on) only landed in 100th place.
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