Taye, Fantu beat Changzhou half marathon record

Both men’s and women’s course records were broken at the Changzhou West Taihu Lake Half Marathon, as Taye Girma retained his title and fellow Ethiopian Fantu Jimma claimed victory in the women’s race at the IAAF Bronze Label event.
The top three finishers all beat the course record of 1:03:04 set last year by Girma in the south-eastern Chinese city. The 23-year-old emerged triumphant from a three-man battle and created a decisive lead in the last 400 meters to break the tape in 1:02:45.
Abdi Fufa, 24, lagged one second behind to take second place in 1:02:46, trimming 11 seconds off his personal best set three years ago in Barcelona. Asefa Tefera, the fastest entrant on paper with a PB of 1:00:07, finished third in 1:02:49 to complete the podium sweep for Ethiopia.
The women’s race also saw an Ethiopian podium sweep. It’s the first time in the six-year history of the event that all podium places in both races were claimed by Ethiopian athletes.
The 32-year-old Fantu a 2:26:14 marathon performer broke away from Etagegn Woldu in the last 200 meters to take the victory in 1:11:46, shattering the course record of 1:12:48 set by her compatriot Zenebu Fikadu in 2018.
Woldu, whose career-best time of 1:09:22 was set last year in Istanbul, finished second in 1:11:53.
Zinash Mekonnen, who stayed in the leading pack for most of the race but had to quit the title contest after 18km, settled for third place in 1:12:07, which is more than three minutes shy of her life-time best mark of 1:08:30 achieved last March in Valencia.