MADRID, 6 Mar. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The South African athlete Stephen Mokoka has broken the men’s 50km world record by completing the ‘Nedbank Runified’ event held in Gqeberha (South Africa) in a time of 2:40:13.
Mokoka, 37 years old and a three-time Olympian, made his debut in the distance after more than a decade specializing in marathons and has managed to improve by almost two minutes the inaugural record set by the Ethiopian Ketema Negasa in this same event last year (2 :42:07).
The South African followed the pace of the ‘hares’ until the halfway point, which he passed in 1:21:02, and pulled away after 30 kilometers with a kilometer he ran in 2:56 to move towards the record. Thus, he maintained that pace and crossed the finish line ahead of his compatriots Tete Dijana (2:44:08) and Edward Mothibi (2:45:27).
In the women’s event, the Ethiopian Amelework Fikadu Bosho won with a time of 3:04:58, far from the world record set in the same event by the South African Irvette van Zyl last year (3:04:24). The Kenyan Shelith Muriuki (3:08:30) and Van Zyl herself (3:13:23) completed the podium.
The 225th Assembly of the World Athletics Council, held at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, decided to add the 50 kilometers to the list of distances for which world records are recognized.