First placed Ethiopian athlete Yalemzerf Yehualaw celebrates with her gold medal at the podium during the medal ceremony of the women"s 2020 Airtel Delhi half marathon in New Delhi on November 29, 2020. — AFP pic

NEW DELHI, Nov 29 —  Ethiopia’s Yalemzerf Yehualaw ran the second-fastest women’s half marathon in history today, completing the 21.09-kilometre course in New Delhi in one hour, four minutes and 46 seconds.

The 21-year-old, whose previous personal best was 1:05:19 set during the world half marathon championships in Gdynia last month, shaved one minute and 14 seconds off the event record at the Airtel Delhi Half Marathon.

She won US$27,000 (RM109,877) in prize money and an additional US$10,000 as an event record bonus.

The overall women’s half marathon record of 1:04:31 was set by Ethiopia’s Ababel Yeshaneh at Ras al-Khaimah in the United Arab Emirates in February.

Yehualaw’s compatriot Amdework Walelegn won the men’s race in the Indian capital on Sunday with a time of 58 minutes and 53 seconds, the third-fastest time of the year and also an event record by 13 seconds.

More than 60 professional runners took part in the race, while several hundred enthusiasts ran in other cities on routes of their choice, using a mobile app to post race timings, organisers said. — Reuters