- Ethiopia's Ketema Negasa broke the men’s 50km world record on Sunday at the Nedbank Runified race in South Africa, running 2:42:07.
- In the women's race, Des Linden's record remained unbeaten, but South Africa’s Irvette Van Zyl ran a national record of 3:04:23. Van Zyl's time is the second-fastest women's time in history.
While Ketema Negasa has previously focused on the marathon distance, with a PB of 2:11:07, it seems his true skills lie in the ultra distance following his performance on Sunday.
Covering the 50km/31-mile distance in 2:42:07, Negasa's average pace per kilometre was a very impressive 3:15. He beat the previous world record, which was held by American runner CJ Albertson, by 23 seconds.
In the women's race, South Africa’s Van Zyl ran the second-fastest time over the distance. American runner Des Linden set the women's 50km world record just over a month ago, running 2:59:54 and becoming the first woman ever to run the distance sub-3. Van Zyl's time of 3:04:23 was faster than the previous record of 3:07:20, set by Great Britain's Aly Dixon in 2019.
Like this article? Sign up to our newsletter to get more articles like this delivered straight to your inbox.
