29 Kaoutar Boulaid pulverizó el récord de España femenino que Laura Luego también había logrado en Valencia un año antes Kaoutar Boulaid smashed the Spanish women's record that Laura Luego set, also in Valencia, a year ago Kejelcha was unchallenged and with less than six kilometres to go, he was 47 seconds ahead of second-placed Daniel Mateiko and 51 seconds ahead of Isaia Kipkoech Lasoi in third position. The other big favourite, Selemon Barega, unfortunately suffered a fall when he slipped on the wet surface. After this demonstration of dominance in a rain-affected race, with no pacemakers from kilometre 3 and a headwind in the final kilometres, the big question is, what time could Kejelcha have achieved on a day with ideal conditions? The athlete himself, in a way, gave the answer after the race. “Why not run in less than 57 minutes next year?” Although, in reality, there is another big question: where will he make his long-awaited marathon debut? A few metres behind, Agnes Ngetich attempted a second feat. The Kenyan athlete was back in Valencia, the city where ten months earlier she broke the 10K world record. On that January day, she set off at such a fast pace that she equalled the 5km record and, without faltering, crossed the finish line with a time (28:46) even faster than the world 10,000m track record (28:54.14 held by Beatrice Chebet). On Sunday she tried to repeat this feat in the half marathon. She proved that she has the potential to improve on the 1h02:52 mark, the top time at the distance set by Letesenbet Gidey in Valencia in 2021. Not feeling it was beyond her, she set off at a furious pace to try and better it by more than a minute. Her pace at kilometres 5 (14:39) and 10 (29:18) was staggering. Only three women in history, and she is one of them, have run faster in a standalone 10-kilometre race than Ngetich's time over 10 kilometres. But, unlike what happened in the 10K Valencia Ibercaja, this time she faltered in the last quarter of the race and had to settle for the second-best time in the world ever: 1:03.04. A resounding success for a newcomer to the distance. All records were in danger in Valencia, the Ciudad del Running, the city of records. Including the two Spanish records. Three women ran faster than the previous Spanish women's record. The fastest of them all was Kaoutar Boulaid, a Moroccan-born athlete who has recently become a citizen, who came in first in the group with a time of 1:08.47, ahead of the previous record holder, Laura Luengo, who was almost a minute faster than her previous record and who came in three seconds behind the winner. She was ahead of Irene Sánchez-Escribano, the 3,000m steeplechase specialist, who made an outstanding debut in the half marathon despite suffering a fall at kilometre 18, which prevented her from winning this three-way duel.
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