World Half Marathon Championships 1999

The 8th Half Marathon World Championships (officially IAAF World Half Marathon Championships ) were held on October 3, 1999 in the Italian city ​​of Palermo . The route was a demanding circuit through the historic city center of Palermo with start and finish on the Foro Italico .

In the tactical men's race, in which the first eight reached the finish line with a time gap of only 6 seconds, there was a dramatic final. The then world record holder Paul Tergat from Kenya was unintentionally hindered by an official on the last hundred meters in his final sprint. However, Tergat was able to avoid a fall and won with a step length ahead of the South African Hendrick Ramaala , who finished second like last year. Tesfaye Jifar from Ethiopia followed a second behind . The team ranking was similarly tight (adding up the times of the three fastest runners in a country). South Africa won by just two seconds. Behind that, Ethiopia and Kenya had the same total time. Because the third runner was three seconds faster, Ethiopia took second place ahead of Kenya.

The women's race was much more unspectacular. The Kenyan Tegla Loroupe ran safely to her third World Championship victory in a row. Mizuki Noguchi from Japan and Catherine Ndereba from Kenya followed well behind . The decision in the team ranking was also clear. Joyce Chepchumba in fourth place completed the outstanding Kenyan team performance and secured her country victory over Japan and Russia.

Results

Individual ranking men

space	athlete	country	Time (h)
1	Paul Tergat	KEN	1:01:50
2	Hendrick Ramaala	RSA	1:01:50
3	Tesfaye Jifar	ETH	1:01:51
4th	Abdellah Béhar	FRA	1:01:53
5	Eduardo Henriques	POR	1:01:53
6th	Abner Chipu	RSA	1:01:54
7th	Laban Chege	KEN	1:01:54
8th	Tesfaye Tola	ETH	1:01:56

Out of 134 registered athletes, 119 started and 109 reached the finish.
Participants from German-speaking countries: Rank 53: Sebastian Bürklein GER , 1:05:21 h; 70th place: Christian Fischer GER , 1:06:54 h; 80th place: Oliver Mintzlaff GER , 1:07:42 h; 86th place: Michael Fietz GER , 1:08:33 h.        

Team ranking men

space	Country and athletes	Time (h)
1	South Africa Hendrick Ramaala (2nd) Abner Chipu (6th) Mluleki Nobanda (10th)	3:06:01 1:01:50 1:01:54 1:02:17
2	Ethiopia Tesfaye Jifar (3rd) Tesfaye Tola (8th) Fekadu Defegu (9th)	3:06:03 1:01:51 1:01:56 1:02:16
3	Kenya Paul Tergat (1st) Laban Chege (7th) Sammy Korir (11th)	3:06:03 1:01:50 1:01:54 1:02:19

A total of 22 teams were rated. Germany took 17th place in 3:19:57 h.

Individual evaluation women

space	Athlete	country	Time (h)
1	Tegla Loroupe	KEN	1:08:48
2	Mizuki Noguchi	JPN	1:09:12
3	Catherine Ndereba	KEN	1:09:23
4th	Joyce Chepchumba	KEN	1:09:29
5	Reiko Tosa	JPN	1:09:36
6th	Valentina Egorova	RUS	1:09:59
7th	Elana Meyer	RSA	1:10:20
8th	Luminița Talpoș	ROU	1:10:33

Of 75 registered athletes, 73 started and 67 reached the finish. The originally fourth-placed Romanian Florina Pană was subsequently disqualified for doping . Participants from German-speaking countries did not take part.

Team ranking women

space	Country and athletes	Time (h)
1	Kenya Tegla Loroupe (1st) Catherine Ndereba (3rd) Joyce Chepchumba (4th)	3:27:40 1:08:48 1:09:23 1:09:29
2	Japan Mizuki Noguchi (2nd) Reiko Tosa (5th) Hiromi Katayama (11th)	3:30:06 1:09:12 1:09:36 1:11:18
3	Russia Valentina Jegorowa (6th) Lyudmila Biktasheva (9th) Alina Ivanova (10th)	3:31:49 1:09:59 1:10:35 1:11:15

A total of 12 teams were rated. Because of the disqualification of Florina Panas, Romania slipped from third to fourth place in the ranking.

Web links

• World Half Marathon Championships 1999 on the IAAF website