Valencia Half Marathon
The Valencia Half Marathon is an annual half marathon road running event held in Valencia, Spain, since 1988. It is categorized as a Gold Label Road Race by World Athletics. The race is organised by the Valencian sports club, which also organises the annual Valencia Marathon.
The race attracts top level elite competitors from Kenya, Ethiopia and Morocco, as well as runners from the host country Spain. Since 2022 the Valencia Half Marathon is part of the Superhalfs Series, and therefore attracts ordinary runners from all over the world.
History
The event was initially founded as a race of, called the "20 kilómetros Adidas", with the inaugural race taking place in 1988. From 1993 to 1995, the race was not contested for reasons beyond the organizer's control.The race was later lengthened to a half marathon, beginning with the 2006 edition of the race. The change coincided with a growth in the number of participants and a higher standard of elite level competition. A record 9328 runners from over 10,300 entrants finished the race in October 2013.
On, the race organizer announced the cancellation of the 2020 in-person edition of the race due to the coronavirus pandemic, with all registrants given the option of transferring their entry to 2021 or obtaining a full refund. About a month later, on, the organizer announced that the Valencia Marathon would hold an "Elite Edition" of the race on, and that it would also include a half marathon race that year. On the day of the race, four half marathon runners broke the previous world record of 58:01, with Kenyan Kibiwott Kandie setting a Half [marathon world record progression|new world record] of 57:32.
On 24 October 2021, Letesenbet Gidey ran a time of 1:02:52, breaking Ruth Chepn'getich's previous world record of 1:04:02 by over one minute.
On 27 October 2024, Yomif Kejelcha ran a time of 57:30 to break Jacob Kiplimo's previous world record of 57:31 set in 2021.
Course
The half marathon starts and finishes on Carrer d'Antonio Ferrandis about southwest of the City of Arts and Sciences.The course first crosses the City of Arts and Sciences before making a loop around the and districts for the first third of the race. The half marathon then largely follows the roads along the as it makes its way northwest to and then back to the start.
Winners
The course records for the half marathon are 57:30 for the men's race and 1:02:52 for the women's race. The latter time is the women's all-comers record for the event in Spain.Key: Course record