Annual half marathon
The
Prague Half Marathon
(known as the
Sportisimo
Prague Half Marathon
for sponsorship reasons) is an annual
half marathon
road running
event which takes place in Spring on the city streets of
Prague
,
Czech Republic
, first held in 1999. It is managed by the same organisation that holds the
Prague Marathon
in May.
[1]
The race has a loop course, starting and ending in
Jan Palach Square
near the
Rudolfinum
, and largely follows the
Vltava
river.
[2]
The competition has enjoyed an increasing level of participation, with around 6500 participants in 2009 and almost 8500 runners taking part in the 2010 event.
[3]
[4]
The Prague Half Marathon holds
World Athletics
Gold Label Road Race
status.
[5]
Joyciline Jepkosgei
set the
half marathon world record
at the time during this race with a time of 1:04:52 in 2017.
[a]
History
[
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]
The half marathon was first held in 1999.
[6]
In 2006, a corporate team half marathon
relay
event was added to the day's programme of events ? each company being represented by four runners each covering equal legs of 5.27 km. Around 100 teams and 50 business and institutions were present for the first race.
[7]
Atsedu Tsegay
holds the men's course record of 58:47 minutes (set in 2012), while
Joyciline Jepkosgei
's mark of 64:52 minutes (set in 2017) is the best achieved by a woman in the Prague race and a world record at the time.
[a]
Both of these times are the fastest ever run in the Czech Republic for the half marathon.
[10]
[11]
The 2020 edition of the race was cancelled due to the
coronavirus
pandemic
, with all registrants given the option of transferring their entry to 2021 or 2022.
[b]
[13]
[14]
Prague 21.1 km
[
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]
After cancelling the 2020 race, organizer RunCzech announced on
1 September 2020
that they were hosting an "invitation-only half marathon featuring 35 [elite] distance runners" in
Letna Park
on
5 September 2020
.
[15]
[16]
Named "Prague 21.1 km", the race would consist of about 16.5 laps of an oval of length 1,280 m (4,200 ft) on flat terrain in the park, with the men and women competing separately.
[16]
[17]
On the day of the race, Kenyan
Peres Jepchirchir
broke the
women-only half marathon world record
with a time of 1:05:34.
[18]
[c]
The world record held for only 42 days, as Jepchirchir broke it again herself at the
2020 World Athletics Half Marathon Championships
in
Gdynia
,
Poland
, with a time of 1:05:16.
[21]
Course
[
edit
]
The Prague Half Marathon has a looped course format which has its race start and end point on
Jan Palach Square
near the
Rudolfinum
. The course follows the
Vltava
river southwards and then makes an east-to-west loop passing
Folimanka
park. It crosses to the west side of the Vltava, heading over
Palacky Bridge
, and after heading south along Strakonicka road it doubles back to follow the river north, before crossing
Legion Bridge
to reach the halfway point. The course traces a large loop into the northern part of the city centre before returning to the Rudolfinum for the finish point.
[23]
Winners
[
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]
Prague Half Marathon
[
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]
Kenyan
athletes have been dominant ? all but four of the men's winners come from the
East African
country, which has also provided over half the female race winners.
Daniel Wanjiru
has topped the men's podium on two occasions, and both
Jana Klime?ova
and
Rose Kosgei
have taken back-to-back wins in the women's event.
[
citation needed
]
Key
:
Course record (in bold)
Prague 21.1 km
[
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]
By country
[
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]
Notes
[
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]
References
[
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]
External links
[
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]
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Editions
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Platinum
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Gold
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Elite
| 50K ultramarathon
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Marathon
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Half marathon
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10K
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Label
| Marathon
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Half marathon
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10K
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Czech Republic
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France
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Germany
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Italy
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Netherlands
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Portugal
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Spain
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Sweden
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United Kingdom
| England
| East
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East Midlands
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London
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North East
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North West
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South East
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South West
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West Midlands
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Yorkshire
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Northern Ireland
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Scotland
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Wales
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Elsewhere
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- *: part of a marathon event
- †: discontinued
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