Selemon Barega and Alphonce Simbu Line Up for the Hong Kong Bridge Half-Marathon

Barega's 57:50 best is more than three and a half minutes quicker than the course record, and Wede Kefale takes on defending champion Grace Nawowuna in Sunday's women's race.

Published: Nov 14, 2026 8:55 am

Jessy Carveth

Jessy Carveth

Jessy is our Senior News Editor, pro cyclist and former track and field athlete with a Bachelors degree in Kinesiology.

Here's My Full Profile

learn about our editorial process

Senior News Editor

Selemon Barega has run a half-marathon in 57:50, and on Sunday he takes that speed to a course in Hong Kong where the record is a fairly modest 1:01:27. The 2021 Olympic 10,000m champion leads the men’s field at the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge Half Marathon, which this year became the first race in the city to earn World Athletics Platinum Label status, the top tier the governing body gives to road races.

Sunday’s race is only the third edition, after a first running in November 2023 and a second in January 2025, when Ethiopia’s Milkesa Mengesha won the men’s race in that 1:01:27, three seconds clear of Kenya’s Patrick Mosin. Now back in November, it has grown to a record 10,000 runners and added a 10K. The start is at the Hong Kong Port of the bridge, inside the border crossing, and the route follows the Hong Kong Link Road and runs through the Scenic Hill Tunnel with the airport alongside.

Selemon Barega and Alphonce Simbu Line Up for the Hong Kong Bridge Half-Marathon 1

The Hong Kong Observatory expects 75 F to 82 F (24 C to 28 C) on Sunday with humidity between 70 and 90 percent, which is warm for a fast half-marathon even with a 7 a.m. start.

Barega, 26, won his marathon debut in Seville in February 2025 in 2:05:15. This year he was seventh at the Tokyo Marathon in March, won the Great Manchester Run in May with a 10K best of 27:37, and in September lowered his marathon best to 2:04:58 for fifth in Berlin, three seconds behind Getaneh Molla, who is also entered here. His 57:50 came in Valencia in 2023, and Hong Kong will be his fifth race over the distance.

Two of the other men in Hong Kong met at the end of August in Sydney, where Addisu Gobena won in a course record of 2:04:42 and Alphonce Simbu was fourth in 2:04:57. Gobena, a 22-year-old Ethiopian, has not raced since. His 59:17 half-marathon best dates from 2025, and before Sydney he placed seventh in London in April.

Simbu, 34, won Tanzania’s first world championship gold in the marathon in Tokyo last year, edging Germany’s Amanal Petros on a photo finish, and has run well ever since. He was second at the Boston Marathon in April in 2:02:47, behind John Korir, and his 59:30 for third at the Dubai half in February is his best over 13.1 miles. With Ezra Tanui of Kenya (59:20), Molla (59:52) and Othmane El Goumri of Morocco (59:53) also entered, six men on the start line have broken an hour.

The Women’s Race

Grace Nawowuna won on the bridge in January 2025, aged 21, in 1:07:56, which is still the women’s course record. The Kenyan’s best of 1:06:31 followed a month later at the Meishan Renshou Half Marathon, where she was second. Her only race of 2026 was 14th place in Meishan, in 1:11:37.

Selemon Barega and Alphonce Simbu Line Up for the Hong Kong Bridge Half-Marathon 2

Wede Kefale arrives as the fastest woman in the field by 18 seconds. The 26-year-old Ethiopian ran 1:05:21 on her half-marathon debut, finishing third in Copenhagen in 2025, and has raced four more halves this year. In the latest she ran 1:05:54, 33 seconds off that mark, for second at the Cardiff Half Marathon on Oct. 4 behind Joyciline Jepkosgei’s course record. Her 10K best, 29:55, came in Valencia in January.

Kenya’s Miriam Chebet, 24, ran 1:05:39 for ninth at the Valencia Half Marathon last month. In March she won the Yangzhou Half Marathon in 1:06:27 with Kefale fourth, and between those two races she finished seventh over 10,000m at the Commonwealth Games.

Aynalem Desta won the Amsterdam Marathon in 2025 and was second there last month in 2:17:06, and this will be only her third half-marathon. Glenrose Xaba, who holds South Africa’s marathon record, is entered, along with Fatima Ezzahra Birdaha, ninth at the World Road Running Championships in Copenhagen in September in a Moroccan record of 1:07:33. Three more Ethiopians, Asmarech Anley, Netsanet Desta and Fantu Worku, have bests between 1:07:01 and 1:07:30.

The race starts at 7 a.m. Sunday in Hong Kong, which is 6 p.m. ET on Saturday. World Athletics, which published the elite fields on Thursday, is streaming it on World Athletics+ and its YouTube channel.