Kenyan athletes were dominant at the Cardiff Half Marathon as Patrick Mosin and Miriam Chebet claimed top honours in the Welsh capital on Sunday.
It was an all-Kenyan affair in the women’s race where Chebet won in a time of 1:06:42, setting a new personal best, to improve on her previous best time of 1:07:14.
Chebet was followed by Kenyan compatriots Grace Nawowuna (1:07:15) and Caroline Nyaga (1:07:16) who came home in second and third positions respectively.
In the men’s category, Mosin claimed the win after coming come in 1:00:01, finishing 31 seconds off compatriot Leonard Langat’s record of 59:30 set in 2019.
More than 29,000 runners signed up for the event, with organisers describing this year’s edition as the «biggest year ever».
«This is our biggest year ever with over 29,000 people registered to take part across the weekend,» said Matt Newman, chief executive of Run4Wales.
Mosin (59:31) came into the race as the second fastest, having won the 2023 Lille Half Marathon, but more notably third at the Prague Half Marathon that was won by the current World Half Marathon Champion Sebastian Sawe in April.
Meanwhile, the women’s race had two-time European Cross Country Champion Fionnuala McCormack (69:32) who was making her Cardiff debut and Nelly Jepchumba (67:00) the fastest entrant, who won at the Rio De Janeiro Half Marathon in August.
However, the victory went elsewhere on Sunday and Chebet ran a tactical race to claim the win which will be a big confidence booster ahead of her next races.