Rodrigue Kwizera Breaks the Spanish Record to Win the Valencia Half Marathon

Rodrigue Kwizera won the Valencia Half Marathon on Sunday in 58:03, taking more than a minute and a half off the Spanish record. No Spaniard had won the race since it began using the full 21.1K course, according to organizers. The time was also three seconds faster than Andreas Almgren’s European record, but it will not be ratified as one. Kwizera, 27, was born in Burundi and became a Spanish citizen this year, and World Athletics has not yet approved the transfer that would let him represent Spain internationally, as the Spanish news agency EFE reported two days before the race. So the run counts as a Spanish record, and the European mark stays with Almgren at 58:06.

Kwizera did not have the race to himself until very late. Nine men ran together for the first half hour behind two pacemakers in near-perfect weather, HerQles reported, and five were still in the lead group at 15K: Kwizera, Thierry Ndikumwenayo, Tadese Worku, Owen Kapkama and Victor Kipruto. He pressed with about 2K to go and only Ndikumwenayo and Kipruto went with him. He broke clear in the final half kilometer. Ndikumwenayo was second in 58:09 and Kipruto third in 58:12, so just nine seconds covered the podium.

Ndikumwenayo, the European cross-country champion, also went well under the old Spanish record of 59:39 that Carlos Mayo set in Valencia in 2023. He was born in Burundi too, and the two men are clubmates at Playas de Castellón who have trained together at altitude in Addis Ababa. Because Kwizera’s time sits outside the European lists for now, Ndikumwenayo’s 58:09 is officially the second-fastest half marathon ever run by a European, only three seconds behind Almgren.

A Second Unofficial Mark for Kwizera This Year

This is the second time in 2026 that Kwizera has gone faster than a standing record without getting it. In May he ran 26:01 for 10K in Madrid, 30 seconds inside Yomif Kejelcha’s world record, on a net-downhill course that could never have produced a ratifiable time. In March he won Prague in 58:16, a course record, which made him the fastest man in Sunday’s field on paper.

He also has history with Almgren in this city. Almgren set his first European record, 58:41, in Valencia last October, and Kwizera finished second in that race in 58:39, ahead of him, while still competing for Burundi. Almgren then lowered the record to 58:06 when he won the world half-marathon title in Copenhagen in September.

Sheila Chepkirui Runs the Fastest Time in the World This Year

The women’s race was settled by a single second. Sheila Chepkirui, the 2024 New York City Marathon champion, won in 1:03:51, with Diana Wanza of Kenya one second behind and Daisilah Jerono third in 1:04:11. Chepkirui’s time is the best in the world in 2026, ahead of the 1:04:01 Loice Chemnung ran in Barcelona in February, and it equals Yalemzerf Yehualaw’s 1:03:51 from Valencia in 2021 as the fifth-fastest half marathon ever run by a woman. According to World Athletics’ all-time list, only Letesenbet Gidey, Agnes Ngetich, Fotyen Tesfay and Lilian Kasait Rengeruk have run faster, and every one of them did it on this course.

At 35, Chepkirui took 45 seconds off the best of 1:04:36 she ran in Ras Al Khaimah in 2022. Wanza’s leap was far bigger: her previous best was 1:07:31, from March. Organizers said the top 10 averaged faster than any women’s top 10 in the race’s history, with 10th place at 1:05:40. Yehualaw, who was racing for the first time since having a baby, was 16th in 1:07:21.

Laura Luengo provided the second Spanish record of the day. Her 1:08:28 for 20th place was two seconds under the 1:08:30 Carla Gallardo ran in Berlin, and organizers noted she had raced little recently and had not prepared with the half in mind. Meritxell Soler and Irene Sánchez-Escribano both ran 1:08:47.

Almgren, who still holds the European record, makes his marathon debut at the New York City Marathon next Sunday, Nov. 1.