The organizers of the Copenhagen Half Marathon, which will take place September 13, have signed a deal with one of the world’s best runners, Bedan Karoki. The little Kenyan has his goal set: He aims to break the world record in Copenhagen.
The extremely fast times performed at last year’s World Half Marathon Championships in Copenhagen have increased runners’ awareness of the flat Danish capital, and the news about a perhaps even faster course for this year’s Copenhagen Half Marathon are starting to spread. It is against this backdrop that Kenyan Bedan Karoki has now signed a deal to run the 2015 Copenhagen Half Marathon, the only IAAF labelled road race throughout Scandinavia.
The 2014 World Half Marathon championship was won by Karoki’s fellow countryman Geoffrey Kamworor in an impressive 59,08 minutes, while the world record of 58,23 minutes set by Eritean Zersenay Tadese in Lisbon remains unbroken for five years. The 24-year old Bedan Karoki’s own personal record is 59,23 minutes set in Philadelphia Half Marathon 2014.
”The Copenhagen Half Marathon course is not entirely similar to the World Half Marathon Championships course. If possible, it is even faster, and under the right weather conditions I definitely believe that is holds world record potential,” says Jakob Larsen, CEO of the Danish Athletic Federation.
Silver at World Cross Championships
A mere 167 centimetres of height, Karoki recently demonstrated his class by taking silver medal in the World Cross Championships in China back in March – finishing second after the 2014 Copenhagen world half marathon winner Geoffrey Kamworor, who thus won his second world championship within a year. The two meet again end of July in their home country at the World Athletics Championships qualifying competitions where both runners hope to qualify for the 10,000 metres. If Kamworor fail to qualify for the Kenyan national team, he will, by all accounts, also be lining up at the Copenhagen Half.
Facts on Bedan Karoki Muchiri, Kenya
Born: 21 August, 1990
167 cm / 65 kg
Personal records: 10,000 metres: 26:52,36 minutes
Half marathon: 59,23 minutes
2015 World Cross Championships: silver
2013 World Championships: 10,000 metres: 6th
2012 Olympics: 10,000 metres: 5th
Facts about the Copenhagen Half Marathon
The new Copenhagen Half Marathon builds on the 2014 IAAF World Half Marathon Championships and the Powerade Copenhagen Half Marathon.
Organized by: The Danish Athletic Federation and Sparta Athletics & Running
Partners: Sport Event Denmark, The City of Copenhagen, The City of Frederiksberg and Wonderful Copenhagen.
Powered by: Nordea-fonden
Entry fee: DKK 450
Date: Sunday September 13, 2015
Race start: 11:00
Entry limit: 25,000 spots
Start and finish: Øster Allé, Copenhagen
[…] The organizers of the Copenhagen Half Marathon, which will take place September 13, have signed a deal with one of the world’s best runners, Bedan Karoki. The little Kenyan has his goal set: He aims to break the world record in Copenhagen. The extremely fast times performed at last year’s World Half Marathon Championships in […] Time-to-Run Global News […]