Taking control of the men’s field at four kilometres of the 23rd Birell Prague Grand Prix (an IAAF Gold Label race), 18 year-old Rhonex Kipruto, RunCzech Racing team member, ran away from the leaders to set a new course record, a massive personal best and performed the second fastest time in history over 10km on the streets of Prague this evening.

Running alone with the other elite rapidly dropping back, Kipruto went through 5km in 13:31 and rarely looking back ran a negative split of 13:15 to slash his personal best by 22 seconds. Only the current world record holder Leonard Patrick Komon has run a faster time with his 26:44 record set on the flat course in Utrecht in 2010. Second placer Geoffrey Koech came in 32 seconds behind Kipruto with 27:18 and Mathew Kimeli third with 27:26. In all, eleven runners crossed the finish line in under 28 minutes.

Kipruto’s may have been the stand-out performance of the evening, but there was plenty of action in the more closely contested women’s race, where the first three finishers completed the course with just 4 seconds between them.

After running side by side throughout the race, the leading trio broke into the final sprint just a few hundred metres out, with Caroline C. Kipkirui winning the dash only metres ahead of Fancy Chemutai and Diana Chemtai Kipyokei. Kipkirui’s time of 30:19 made her the third fastest woman in history over 10km (the two other best performances were also set in Prague by Joyciline Jepkosgei in 2017). Caroline proved her good shape at this year’s Sportisimo Prague Half Marathon where she finished second. Fancy Chemutai clocked 30:22, with Kipyokei made a huge improvement in her personal best, completing the podium in 30:23, taking 3 minutes and 31 seconds off her previous PB.

The fastest among Czech runners were Jakub Zemaník (29:30) and Eva Vrabcová Nývltová (33:57).

Just under 9,000 runners competed in the 10km race, with 2,000 women taking part in the 5km race that opened the evening’s competition.

Results

Top 10 men

Top 10 women