BARCELONA, SPAIN, February 16 — Jacob Kiplimo stunned himself and the running world when he ran a masterful 56:42 World Record in the 2025 Barcelona Half Marathon.
“It was the perfect race,” exclaimed the 24-year-old Ugandan. “Ideal temperature, no wind at all, fantastic circuit. Everything went better than expected, but I never imagined to perform under the 57-minute barrier, that’s astonishing.”
Even in the age of super shoes, the 48-second WR improvement is also astonishing in an event that had seen consecutive 1-second records after Kiplimo ran 57:31 for his first WR in Lisbon ’21, one second faster than Kibiwott Kandie’s 57:32. Last year Kiplimo saw his own record bettered by a second when Yomif Kejelcha ran 57:30 in Valencia.
While reclaiming the WR might have been on Kiplimo’s mind, this record run seemed far from scripted with only one pacer, 19-year-old Japan-based Kenyan Edwin Kimonsong, tasked with setting a 2:45 K opening tempo.
The young Kenyan did a good job leading Kiplimo and the Kenyan duo of Samwel Mailu and former World Record holder Geoffrey Kamworwor through 2:44 and 2:43 kilometers, passing 2K in 5:27 — a 57:29 WR clip.
Half a kilometer later, Kiplimo took a couple quick looks at his watch, then took off, just 7:15 into the race. In an instant he was gone, racing 20 meters ahead of his rivals with the desperate Kimonsong sprinting in vain to catch the streaking Ugandan.
Kiplimo acknowledged, “The pacemaker set the agreed 2:45 pace but I found myself full of energy and decided to inject a brisker rhythm from the third kilometer.”
Brisk indeed, as Kiplimo maintained the 2:42 K pace up the hill, and passing 5K in 13:34 (57:15 pace), and then really opened it up as he headed downhill back towards the city center.
Kiplimo rattled off a string of sub 2:40 Ks lifting the pace so high that it might put the much batted-about record out of reach. Splitting 13:12 for the second 5K segment, Kiplimo sped across the 10K mat in 26:46, a whopping 56:28 pace.
Kiplimo flew down the road, his elbows held a bit wide, steadying his rose clad frame and dictating an unwavering stride, with his feet but a blur.
With only the red clock car to chase, it got even faster as Kiplimo maintained the 2:40 clip to split 13:21 for the third 5K segment. Kiplimo crossed 15K in 40:07 — down to 56:25…
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