Javier Saviola completed the Barcelona Half Marathon

Kenyan Jocelyn Jepkosgei This Sunday, he broke the record for the 2024 Barcelona Half Marathon with a time of 1:04:27, which is the sixth fastest time in history, thus surpassing the record set by his compatriot Irene Kemays last year (1:04:37).

In the men's category, Kibbut Candy, also Kenyan He met expectations and was declared the winner with a time of 59:20, which was not enough for him to break the test record (58:53) on a wind-affected day.

Beyond the elite runners, the 34th edition of the Barcelona Half Marathon has gone down in history as the most particleafter setting a new record for participation in Spain with more than 28,000 people and becoming the second largest participation in Europe after Berlin (35,000).

And from Argentina, attendance Javier Saviola. Former football player He completed the Barcelona Half Marathon in an official time of 1 hour, 52 minutes and 34 seconds, which placed him in 11,247th place.

It was not an athlete's spotlight. But it made the Argentine national team player, River, Barcelona and others happy. “Framing day! What a beautiful experience! We will do it again,” Saviola said on Instagram.

Jepkosgei, who smashed her personal best in Barcelona last year despite finishing second, this time dominated the race and finished ahead of Ethiopia's Senbere Tefere (1:04:38) and Kenya's Gladys Chepkori (1:06:32).

For his part, Candy, a three-time winner of the Valencia Half Marathon and holder of the second best world record in this discipline (57:32, Valencia 2020), was accompanied on the podium by the Swede Andreas Almgren (59:22) and the American. Kenyan Ronse Kipkorir Konga (59:27).

The other hero of the day was the wind that blew strongly off the mountain towards the sea and hit the sides for almost the entire race, practically in the face for most of the first section, and later when passing through the waterfront.

The men's elite reached the fifth kilometer on the Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes in a time of 14:22, 16 seconds slower than the test record, while the women's elite set the mark of the previous edition (15:22).