Yomif Kejelcha’s Half-Marathon World Record Is Now Official

World Athletics ratified Yomif Kejelcha’s half-marathon world record on Monday, confirming the 56:51 he ran in Buenos Aires on Aug. 23 and returning to the Ethiopian a record he first set in Valencia in 2024. His time is 29 seconds faster than the 57:20 Jacob Kiplimo ran in Lisbon in March, and the ruling came 78 days after the race.

Kiplimo’s Lisbon run sat in the queue for 179 days and was ratified on Sept. 3, 11 days after Kejelcha had already beaten it. His 56:42 in Barcelona in February 2025, the first half-marathon under 57 minutes, took even longer and was ruled out in February 2026, with World Athletics citing race conditions that did not fully comply with its rules; the lead car had driven close enough to give him a slipstream. Kejelcha has waited on the process himself. His 10K road record of 26:31, set in Castellón on the same afternoon as Barcelona, was ratified on June 1, more than 15 months later.

Organizers changed the Buenos Aires layout for 2026, cutting the highway sections and sending the race along Avenida 9 de Julio and Avenida Libertador, so the new course needed its own certification before the time could stand, and Monday’s ratification covers that as well.

Kejelcha broke clear at 7K and ran the rest of the race alone. He went through 10K in 27:19 and 15K in 40:41, after a 13:22 5K, and reached 20K in 54:04. That second 10K of 26:45 was only 14 seconds slower than his own world record for the distance, and he covered the last 1.1K in 2:47. Tadese Worku finished second in 59:20, almost two and a half minutes back.

Kejelcha, 29, ran his first marathon in London in April and finished second to Sabastian Sawe in 1:59:41, the day two men went under two hours in a record-eligible race for the first time. His second is the Valencia Marathon on Dec. 6, where John Korir is defending his title. Valencia’s chief executive, Juan Manuel Botella, told Marathon Handbook in May what the race expects of him. “He wouldn’t come to a marathon like Valencia to easily win in 2:03, nor would we hire him to run at 95%,” Botella said.