Kenyans Sabastian Sawe and Margaret Kipkemboi win the Copenhagen Half Marathon on Sunday as Jakob Ingebrigtsen is humbled by the distance
After a summer track season that ended just two days earlier with victory in the Diamond League 1500m final in Brussels, Jakob Ingebrigtsen’s audacious half-marathon debut in Copenhagen fell apart after 10km.
Passing that point with the leaders in 27:27, he pulled up sharply, grimacing in pain with the effort. Soon after he resumed running and rumbled home in 63:13. Up ahead, victory went to Sabastian Sawe as the Kenyan out-sprinted Ugandan Jacob Kiplimo to win in 58:05.
Ingebrigtsen’s participation came after a summer which has included an Olympic 5000m title, fourth place in the much-hyped Olympic 1500m final and a world 3000m record of 7:17.55. In such form, he suggested his goal was to break world records in all distance events from 1500m to marathon, including steeplechase, but after struggling on Sunday (Sept 15) he admitted he has a fair bit to find in order to mix it with the world’s best on the roads.
A humbled Ingebrigtsen said: “I think 21km is definitely too long. I’m definitely not going to try (a half-marathon) again for a couple of years. It was fun but tough. I tried to stay with the leading group for as long as I could.”
With Ingebrigtsen’s seemingly last-minute entry there were shades of Steve Ovett, who in his 1500m and mile heyday in the late 1970s won the Dartford Half Marathon over a hilly course in 65:38 as a training run. Coincidentally, this year’s edition of the Dartford race took place on the same day as Copenhagen too.
Jakob Ingebrigtsen (Sparta)
The Norwegian, who turns 24 on Thursday (Sept 19), added: “I think I ran a Norwegian record for 10km but I had no chance of staying the full distance today. It was a fun way to end the season. This is definitely not my thing. Not yet at least.”
Copenhagen had a top-class field as well. Sawe won the world half-marathon title in Riga last year whereas Kiplimo, who clocked 58:10 on Sunday, holds the world record with 57:31. As a further measure of the quality, one of the pacemakers was Berihu Aregawi, who finished runner-up to Ingebrigtsen in his world 3000m record race in Poland and who won the Diamond League 5000m final in Brussels earlier in the week.
Sabastian Sawe (Sparta)
Sawe’s win came down to a sprint at the end, too, as he saw off Kiplimo by four seconds with Isaia Lasoi a further second behind. At a crucial point in the long run-in to the finish, Kiplimo found himself on the wrong side of the road and veered diagonally back toward Sawe, an error which potentially cost the Ugandan the win.
READ MORE: Ingebrigtsen wins Diamond League 1500m
In the women’s race, Margaret Kipkemboi of Kenya won in 65:11 from Judy Kemboi, who ran 65:43, and Reline Amanang’ole, who clocked 66:09.
Margaret Kipkemboi (Sparta)
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