1997 World Half Marathon Championships

The 6th Half Marathon World Championships (officially IAAF World Half Marathon Championships ) took place on October 4, 1997 in the Slovak city ​​of Košice . It was held on the route of the International Peace Marathon.

The men's race produced some outstanding performances in favorable external conditions. The winner Shem Kororia from Kenya was only the third person in history to beat the one-hour mark on the half-marathon distance with 59:56 minutes and was only nine seconds above the world record at the time. The world record holder Moses Tanui in second place also reached the goal with 59:58 minutes in under an hour. Never before had two runners succeeded in the same race. With a time of exactly 60 minutes, Kenneth Cheruiyot made the Kenyan triple triumph perfect. Consequently, Kenya won the team standings (adding up the times of the three fastest runners in a country) ahead of South Africa and Ethiopia.

Tegla Loroupe from Kenya won the women’s championship record time of 1:08:14 h. After only 10 kilometers, only her most dangerous competitor, the world record holder Elana Meyer from South Africa, could follow her. A short time later, however, this had to give up the race, so that Loroupe safely took victory. The Romanians Cristina Pomacu and Lidia Șimon followed with a clear gap in second and third place . The team title went to Romania for the fifth time in a row, silver and bronze to Kenya and Japan.

Results

Men

Individual evaluation

space	athlete	country	Time (h)
1	Shem Kororia	KEN	059:56
2	Moses Tanui	KEN	059:58
3	Kenneth Cheruiyot	KEN	1:00:00
4th	Hendrick Ramaala	RSA	1:00:07
5	Mohammed Mourhit	BEL	1:00:18
6th	Gert Thys	RSA	1:00:23
7th	Abraham Addefa	ETH	1:00:52
8th	Luis Jesus	POR	1:00:56

Of 144 registered athletes, 143 started and 138 reached the finish.

Participants from German-speaking countries: 12th place: Michael Fietz GER , 1:01:18 h; 13th place: Stéphane Schweickhardt SUI , 1:01:26 h; 54th place: Viktor Röthlin SUI , 1:03:29 h; Place 56: Jens Karraß GER , 1:03:39 h; 67th place: Rainer Huth GER , 1:04:34 h; 79th place: Hansjörg Brücker SUI , 1:04:59 h; Rank 86: Markus Gerber SUI , 1:05:29 h. In the official result lists, Jens Karraß and Rainer Huth are listed the other way round, this is because the national coach assigned the start numbers to the runners incorrectly and this was never corrected.              

Team evaluation

space	Country and athletes	Time (h)
1	Kenya Shem Kororia (1st) Moses Tanui (2nd) Kenneth Cheruiyot (3rd)	2:59:54 0 59:56 059:58 1:00:00
2	South Africa Hendrick Ramaala (4th) Gert Thys (6th) Makhosonke Fika (42nd)	3:03:34 1:00:07 1:00:23 1:03:04
3	Ethiopia Abraham Assefa (7th) Lemma Alemayehu (11th) Tesfaye Tola (18th)	3:03:46 1:00:52 1:01:17 1:01:37

A total of 31 teams were rated. Germany took 11th place in 3:09:31 h, Switzerland 13th place in 3:09:54 h.

Women

Individual evaluation

space	Athlete	country	Time (h)
1	Tegla Loroupe	KEN	1:08:14
2	Cristina Pomacu	ROU	1:08:43
3	Lidia Șimon	ROU	1:09:05
4th	Joyce Chepchumba	KEN	1:09:07
5	Nuța Olaru	ROU	1:09:52
6th	Katrin Dörre-Heinig	GER	1:09:56
7th	Lyudmila Petrova	RUS	1:10:02
8th	Rocío Ríos	ESP	1:10:06

Of 84 registered athletes, 83 started and 77 reached the finish.
Further participants from German-speaking countries: 16th place: Petra Wassiluk GER , 1:11:03 h; 18th place: Iris Biba GER , 1:11:17 h; Rank 34: Ursula Jeitziner SUI , 1:13:10 h; DNF: Christina Mai GER .        

Team evaluation

space	Country and athletes	Time (h)
1	Romania Cristina Pomacu (2nd) Lidia Șimon (3rd) Nuța Olaru (5th)	3:27:40 1:08:43 1:09:05 1:09:52
2	Kenya Tegla Loroupe (1st) Joyce Chepchumba (4th) Delilah Asiago (11th)	3:27:57 1:08:14 1:09:07 1:10:36
3	Japan Mari Sotani (9th) Noriko Geji (12th) Hiromi Katayama (13th)	3:31:38 1:10:13 1:10:37 1:10:48

A total of 14 teams were rated. Germany took 5th place in 3:32:16 h.

Web links

• World Half Marathon Championships 1997 on the IAAF website