WEIGHT WATCHER TO WORLD RECORD HOLDER
Joyciline Jepkosgei of Kenya runs the annual Ras Al Khaimah half-marathon within the UAE on February 1st, persevering with the race’s custom of being a digital ‘who’s who?’ of world distance operating since Sammy Wanjiru of Kenya received the inaugural males’s occasion in 2007, the 12 months earlier than his runaway Olympic marathon victory in Beijing.
In distinction to most of her compatriots, Jepkosgei was a late developer, solely moving into her stride effectively into her twenties. Nonetheless, since putting high type with a sequence of data in 2017, she has been a mainstay on the elite finish of the rating lists.
In an period earlier than tremendous footwear and new power gels, Jepkosgei created as a lot consternation as Ruth Chepn’getich’s current sub-2.10 marathon when she broke 4 world data in a single race on the Prague half in 2017. She clocked 30.04 for 10k, 45.37 for 15k, and 61.25 for 20k earlier than ending in 64:52, the primary ladies’s sub-65min clocking in historical past. Six weeks later, she returned to Prague, broke by one other barrier, and have become the primary lady to run sub-30 min for 10k with 29.43. Later that 12 months, she improved her half marathon world document by one second in Valencia, thus changing into the primary Kenyan to interrupt six world data in a 12 months.
She completed second on this planet championships half-marathon in 2018 and received the New York Marathon on her debut on the distance the next 12 months. Eighteen months later, she took 5 minutes off her time when she received the 2021 London Marathon in 2.17.43, once more one of many quickest occasions in historical past. She was second in London the next 12 months however has continued to enhance into her early thirties. She has positioned second and first within the Barcelona half-marathon within the final two years, with 64.46 in 2023 and 64.29 in 2024.
Ras Al Khaimah is without doubt one of the smaller emirates within the northernmost a part of the UAE. It’s a city-state with a inhabitants of round 400,000, with proof of steady habitation for over 7000 years. Serving to its race into the twenty first century for the final 20 years since Wanjiru, the RAK ‘half’ has attracted world champions and document holders and different Olympic winners reminiscent of Tamirat Tola, Paris ‘24 marathon champion, and Peres Chepchirchir, ladies’s winner on the delayed Tokyo Olympics 2021.
Not like most, Jepkosgei is without doubt one of the few East African superstars who has not nurtured her expertise by operating to and from college. She was already married and making an attempt to reduce weight after the delivery of her first little one when her husband, Nicholas Koech, a former 800-meter runner, advised she do this by operating. The remaining, !
