Ethiopian Yomif Kejelcha sets world half-marathon record in Buenos Aires

BREAKING: Ethiopia's Yomif Kejelcha smashes the world half-marathon record in Buenos Aires, winning in 56 minutes and 51 seconds.

Fifty six minutes and fifty one seconds for a half marathon. That's a world record, smashed.

Ethiopia's Yomif Kejelcha did it in Buenos Aires this morning, and here he is soaking it in. He took twenty nine seconds off the mark Jacob Kiplimo set in Lisbon back in March, and in this sport twenty nine seconds is a lifetime. Kejelcha said he wasn't even expecting a record, he just wanted to break fifty seven minutes. Careful what you wish for.

The best part, he'd never set foot in Argentina. He told his manager he needed a race between London and Valencia, and the answer was, go to Buenos Aires. Thirty thousand runners in freezing southern winter sunshine, right past the Obelisk, and an all Ethiopian podium with Tadese Worku and Bereket Nega behind him.

That's under two minutes and forty three seconds per kilometre, for twenty one of them. Read that again slowly, he didn't.

This is Sara White, reporting for HIT.