Jacob Kiplimo is the half marathon world record holder again.
The Ugandan distance runner clocked 57:20 at the EDP Lisbon Half Marathon on March 8, 2026, setting a new world record on the same course where he first broke it back in 2021. It was the kind of performance that ties a neat bow on a story that had no business being this complicated — but then, Kiplimo has never made things easy on himself.
The Record That Shouldn’t Have Been Necessary
To understand why Sunday felt like more than just a fast run, you need to go back to Barcelona in early 2025.
Kiplimo showed up, ran 56:42, and — by the laws of physics if not the laws of athletics — became the fastest half marathon runner who ever lived. The running world lost its mind. Footage spread everywhere. It was, by every visible measure, the greatest half marathon ever run.
Then World Athletics declined to ratify it. The mark was struck from the record books, the official world record remained with Ethiopian runner Yomif Kejelcha, and Kiplimo was left holding a performance that everyone had seen and no one could officially acknowledge. It is the kind of thing that would test the patience of a saint, let alone a 25-year-old with legs like that.
The controversy around the ratification also shone a light on a broader issue in the sport — one that runners and fans had been debating long before Kiplimo ever laced up in Barcelona.
So He Came Back to Lisbon
There’s something almost poetic about the fact that Kiplimo chose to answer the question here, on this course, in this city.
His first world record came at the EDP Lisbon Half Marathon in November 2021, when he ran 57:31 to become the fastest man in history over 13.1 miles — at 20 years old, which is frankly a bit ridiculous. The course runs along the north bank of the River Tagus and has a reputation for producing fast times. Kiplimo clearly has a soft spot for it.
Returning in 2026 was not an accident. Kiplimo had originally been expected to race at Barcelona again, before Uganda Athletics announced a change of plan. “Kiplimo did not run in Barcelona, and will instead run in the EDP Lisbon Half Marathon,” said Dominic Otuchet, President of Uganda Athletics. “It was also a strategic change for Kiplimo as he prepares for the London Marathon.”
Strategic. That’s one word for it. Another word might be personal.
Lisbon carries a World Athletics Label designation, meaning records set there go through full ratification under pre-approved conditions. It is, in short, a place where what happens on the road stays in the record books.
He Didn’t Exactly Turn Up Out of Form
It would be easy to frame Sunday’s run as purely redemptive — the wronged runner righting a wrong. But the fuller picture is of someone who has spent the past year making a compelling case that he is simply the best distance runner on the planet right now.
In 2024 he won gold at the World Cross Country Championships. Last October he won the Chicago Marathon. He came to Lisbon not scraping around for confidence, but carrying so much form that the world record was almost the expected outcome.
He found it anyway. In 57:20. On the banks of the Tagus. Five years after he first did it.
What’s Next
The London Marathon is the next target, and after what Kiplimo has shown over the past 12 months, it’s hard to look at that race without assuming he’s the favourite.
As for the record — the 56:42 in Barcelona will probably never appear in any official list. But 57:20 is there, pending ratification, and ready to sit in the books where it belongs.
My brain can not comprehend a half marathon in 57 mins. It’s amazing as well as baffling. He is beyond human, he’s a shooting star!