After breaking the two-hour marathon barrier behind Sabastian Sawe in London in the spring, the Ethiopian runner now runs a 56:51 half-marathon in Argentina.

Yomif Kejelcha reclaimed the world half-marathon record on Sunday (Aug 23), clocking 56:51 to win the Media Maratón Ciudad de Buenos Aires.

The run took 29 seconds off the mark of 57:20 set by Uganda's Jacob Kiplimo in Lisbon in March and returns the record to Kejelcha, who first set it with 57:30 in Valencia in October 2024.

However, his time is the second fastest in history by Kiplimo's 56:42 from the 2025 Barcelona Half which is still on the all-time list even though it wasn't ratified as a world record.

It continues a remarkable spell for the 28-year-old, who made the step up to the marathon for the first time in April and immediately went under two hours, finishing second to Kenya's Sabastian Sawe at the London Marathon in 1:59:41 – a debut that made him only the second man in history to break the barrier, 11 seconds behind Sawe's winning world record of 1:59:30.

Kejelcha's rise to the marathon and half marathon has come after a decorated track career that began with world youth and world junior 3000m and 5000m titles as a teenager. He set the world indoor mile record of 3:47.01 in Boston in March 2019, taking 1.44 seconds off Hicham El Guerrouj's 22-year-old mark, a record that stood until Yared Nuguse broke it in February 2025.

"I’m over the moon,” said Kejelcha. “I’m super happy and right now I don’t feel any tiredness. The travel from Ethiopia was too long and I was tired the first days here, but later I felt better and today I was full of beans," he added.

Fellow Ethiopians Tadese Worku (59:20) and Bereket Nega (60:20) finished second and third.

In the women's race, Ethiopia's Fotyen Tesfay was a big winner in a world lead of 63:57 ahead of Kenyans Nelvin Jepkemboi (65:06) and Catherine Reline Amanang'ole (65:11).