Agnes Ngetich breaks the women-only half marathon world record to win world gold in Copenhagen
Ngetich ran 1:05:15 at the World Road Running Championships, one second inside Peres Jepchirchir's 2020 mark, and led Kenya to team gold.
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In short: Agnes Ngetich won the women's half marathon at the World Athletics Road Running Championships in Copenhagen on 20 September 2026 in 1:05:15, a women-only world record. It beat Peres Jepchirchir's 1:05:16 from 2020 by one second and is subject to ratification. Kenya also won the team title.
Agnes Ngetich ran alone at the front from the early kilometres in Copenhagen on Sunday 20 September and won the world half marathon title in 1:05:15. World Athletics says that is a women-only world record, one second faster than the 1:05:16 Peres Jepchirchir ran to win the 2020 world title in Gdynia. Like all records, it is subject to ratification.
How the race unfolded
Ngetich went through the first kilometre in about three minutes and was ten seconds clear at 5km (15:12). Her lead grew to 26 seconds at 10km (30:39) and 53 seconds at 15km (46:17). She passed 20km in 1:01:56 and won by 50 seconds.
Afterwards she said that finishing with a world record "by just one second was unbelievable".
| Pos | Athlete | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Agnes Ngetich (KEN) | 1:05:15 |
| 2 | Veronica Loleo (KEN) | 1:06:05 |
| 3 | Florence Niyonkuru (RWA) | 1:06:08 |
| 4 | Daisilah Jerono (KEN) | 1:06:13 |
| 5 | Emma Grace Hurley (USA) | 1:06:23 |
Team gold for Kenya
With Veronica Loleo second and Daisilah Jerono fourth, Kenya won the team title in a combined 3:17:33, ahead of the United States (3:19:51) and Ethiopia (3:22:40).
A third world record
Ngetich now holds three world records, according to World Athletics. The other two are on the road over 10km: 28:46 in a mixed race and 29:27 in a women-only race. Copenhagen was her second global title of 2026, after she won the world cross-country title in Tallahassee in January by 42 seconds. This year she has also run a world-leading 28:58 for 10km in Lille and 8:08.95 for 3000m in Monaco.
She has one more goal. "It is my dream to win a gold medal on the track," she said, and she plans to return to track racing in 2027 for the World Championships.