The women's contest kicked off at an even 3:06/km pace with six athletes at the helm: Kenya's Chelimo, Cheptai and Chepngetich, plus Ethiopia’s Gotytom Gebreslase and Tigist Gezahagn, and Germany's Melat Kejeta.
They reached 5km in 15:29 and 10km in 31:01 to build a sizeable margin over Britain's Samantha Harrison, who was in seventh place in 31:38. Chelimo, fresh from a silver medal over the distance at the World Road Running Championships, ran closest to the pacemakers, and the first casualty from the leading group was Kejeta, who began to fade 11km into the race.
The pace of an estimated 1:05 final time proved too much for the Ethiopian duo and they both lost ground at around 14km. A Kenyan sweep of the top three places looked on the cards and the leaders clocked 46:19 at the 15km checkpoint, some 15 seconds clear of Gezahagn. She was then 11 seconds ahead of the world marathon silver medallist Gebreslase.
Chepngetich, a 1:06:42 performer, could not maintain Chelimo and Cheptai's cadence at the 19th kilometre and the race became a two-athlete fight. The leaders went through 20km in 1:01:30 and Chepngetich followed in 1:01:45.
Over the closing kilometre, the experienced Chelimo increased her speed and easily broke away from Cheptai to cross the finish line in a lifetime best of 1:04:46 - moving her to equal ninth on the world all-time list. She won by seven seconds ahead of Cheptai, who also achieved a PB performance, while Chepngetich completed the top three in 1:05:15.
Gebreslase was fourth in 1:06:12 and Gezahagn fifth in 1:06:20. The Spanish record also fell in the women’s race, with Laura Luengo running 1:09:41 to place 11th.
Portugal's 1988 Olympic marathon champion Rosa Mota improved her own world W65 masters record of 1:26:16 set at the World Road Running Championships in Riga, running 1:26:13 in Valencia.
Emeterio Valiente for World Athletics
Leading results
Women 1 Margaret Chelimo (KEN) 1:04:46 2 Irine Cheptai (KEN) 1:04:53 3 Janet Chepngetich (KEN) 1:05:15 4 Gotytom Gebreslase (ETH) 1:06:12 5 Tigist Gezahagn (ETH) 1:06:20 6 Melat Kejeta (GER) 1:06:25 7 Samantha Harrison (GBR) 1:07:10 8 Nigsti Haftu (ETH) 1:08:42 9 Carolina Wikstrom (SWE) 1:09:39 10 Lauren Hagans (USA) 1:09:41
Men 1 Kibiwott Kandie (KEN) 57:40 2 Yomif Kejelcha (ETH) 57:41 3 Hagos Gebrhiwet (ETH) 57:41 4 Selemon Barega (ETH) 57:50 5 Sabastian Sawe (KEN) 58:29 6 Hillary Chepkwony (KEN) 58:53 7 Mathew Kimeli (KEN) 59:00 8 Nicholas Kipkorir Kimeli (KEN) 59:06 9 Hillary Kipkoech (KEN) 59:22 10 Weldon Langat (KEN) 59:22
Story: World Athletics
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