Kenya’s Agnes Jebet Ngetich has won gold at the World Athletics Road Running Championships in Copenhagen, Denmark, clocking 65:15 to set a new women-only half-marathon world record.
The victory adds another global title to an already outstanding 2026 season for the 25-year-old Kenyan, who arrived in Denmark as the reigning world cross-country champion and one of the leading contenders for the half-marathon crown.
Ngetich Breaks Women-Only World Record
Ngetich’s winning time of 1:05:15 lowered the previous women-only half-marathon world record of 1:05:16, set by Peres Jepchirchir at the 2020 World Athletics Half Marathon Championships in Gdynia, Poland.
The outright women’s half-marathon world record remains 1:02:52, set by Ethiopia’s Letesenbet Gidey in Valencia in 2021 in a mixed-sex race.
World Athletics listed Gidey’s mark as the women’s world record ahead of the Copenhagen championships.
Ngetich’s 65:15 performance establishes the fastest time recorded in a race conducted exclusively for women, improving Jepchirchir’s mark by one second.
Kenyan Star Dominates Copenhagen Race
Ngetich entered the championships with strong credentials over the 21.1-kilometer distance.
Her personal best of 1:03:04, recorded when she won the 2024 Valencia Half Marathon, was the second-fastest performance in history.
She also ran 1:03:08 in Valencia in 2025, giving her two of the fastest times ever recorded by a woman.
Her 2026 campaign had already produced several major achievements. In January, she won her first senior global title at the World Cross Country Championships in Tallahassee, United States, winning the women’s 10km race by 42 seconds.
She subsequently continued her strong form on the roads and track. World Athletics records that she ran a world-leading 28:58 over 10km in Lille and later produced a world-leading 8:08.95 over 3,000m in Monaco.
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