Ethiopian runner Yalemzerf Yehualaw has clocked 29:14 for a women's world 10km record in a mixed race

Yalemzerf Yehualaw has broken the women’s 10km road record in Castellon, Spain, with a time of 29:14.

The 22-year-old sliced 24 seconds from Kalkidan Gezahegne's world record of 29:38 on Sunday (Feb 27) in Spain.

It comes after a couple of record-breaking near misses. In the Antrim Coast Half-Marathon last September she set what appeared to be a world record of 63:43 before it transpired the course was 54 metres short. Then, in the Great Ethiopian Run last month, she seemingly clocked an African all-comers’ record of 30:14 at high altitude in Addis Ababa, only to see the time adjusted to 31:17 due to a timing error.

Yalemzerf said: “Today a dream came true. I felt really great in the race. The first 5km was very fast. I was struggling a little bit in the second 5km but I was still able to maintain a high pace.

"I’m so happy with this record! I want to thank the race organisers for this fantastic opportunity," added Yehualaw, who ran splits of 14:28 and 14:46.

Yehualaw won a bronze medal at the World Half Marathon Championships whereas last year she became the second fastest women's half-marathon runner in history, clocking 63:51 in Valencia to finish behind the world record run of her NN Running Team team-mate Letesenbet Gidey.

Among other things this year, Yehualaw is due to return to the Antrim Coast Half-Marathon in August.

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