Almgren ends Africa's 30-year World Half win streak

Andreas Almgren did not lead a single one of the first 13 miles in Copenhagen. Then he did, and Africa's 30-year win streak at the World Half Marathon Championships was over.

As we reported earlier, the Swede clocked 58:06 to win, taking 35 seconds off his own European record and moving to ninth on the world all-time list. CITIUS MAG says the winning move came over the final 100m or so, when he overtook Nicholas Kipkorir. World Athletics puts the surge at the final 200m. Either way Kipkorir held on for silver in 58:11, and Joshua Cheptegei took bronze in 58:26, which CITIUS calls arguably the strongest race of his career on the roads.

The streak that just ended

LetsRun.com's Jonathan Gault supplied the number that makes the result land. Almgren is the first non-African man to win the World Half since Italy's Stefano Baldini in 1996. Thirty years of African winners, gone in the last stretch of a road race in Denmark.

Jonathan Gault

@jgault13

X

First non-African man to win the World Half since Italy's Stefano Baldini in 1996.

The American angle is a team medal. LetsRun reports Conner Mantz ran aggressively early and came through 10K with the lead pack in 27:53, which works out to 58:50 pace, and led the US men to team bronze. That is after Mantz came into the weekend off two stress fractures.

What it actually means

Almgren makes his marathon debut at the New York City Marathon in six weeks. CITIUS put it plainly with "Seems like the New York build is going pretty well." Nobody has taken form like this into that race in a long time, though the caveat is the obvious one, a 58:06 half is not a marathon and New York is not a fast course.

CITIUS MAG

@CitiusMag

X

Seems like the New York build is going pretty well

One loose end. LetsRun.com posted that Almgren had something tucked inside the back of his shorts during the race and says it has the answer.