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RunCzech Announces Elite Athletes for the 2019 Sportisimo Prague Half Marathon

Prague Half Marathon On April 6, 2019 the 21st edition of the Sportisimo Prague Half Marathon, an IAAF Gold Label Road Race, will feature the strongest field of professional runners and the largest field of amateur entrants in its storied history. The field of 11,500 will include nine men with personal bests under one hour and two of the fastest women in history.

The fastest half marathoner in the world this year is RunCzech Racing Alumnus, Stephen Kiprop. He is the defending champion of the Mattoni Ústí nad Labem Half Marathon 2018 and winner of the 2019 RAK Half in 58:42. His challengers will include the Defending Champion and winner of the 2017 Birell Prague Grand Prix 10km in 27:10, Bernard Kimeli. But any one of a dozen others could step up to the top of the podium.

Returning to Prague will be Sondre Moen (NOR) – one of the top Europeans with a PB of 59:48 (Valencia 17). He previously competed in the 2017 Birell Prague Grand Prix where he ran a 10km PB of 27:55. Then in De-cember 2017 he ran a European marathon record 2:05:48 in Fukuoka. During much of 2018 he was confronted with injuries and health problems, but this year in February he returned with a 5km National Record in Mona-co, finishing second in 13:37. Also entered are two of the top finishers from the 2019 Napoli City Half Mara-thon (RunCzech race). Moses Kemei and Ishmael Kalale were second and third in Napoli in very difficult and windy conditions. In Prague, they will be looking to join the "sub one hour club".

The race will feature two of the fastest women in history, the Kenyan Fancy Chemutai (1:04:52 number 2 all time) and Caroline Kipkirui, a Kenyan now competing for Kazakhstan (1:05:07 number 6). Other interesting challengers include the Isreali Sportswoman of the Year 2018, Lonah Chemtai Salpeter - 2018 European Cham-pion at 10.000m and national record holder in the marathon. She improved her half marathon PB to 1:06:40 while winning the Huawei RomaOstia Half on March 10th. Another runner to watch will be the American, Amy Cragg. She will be looking to improve her PB of 1:08:27 and challenge the NR of 1:07:25. She ran a PB of 2:21:42 for the marathon in Tokyo in 2018 and demonstrated her current fitness when she won the special Road to Gold 8-mile road race in Atlanta on March 2nd by over one minute.

The best Czech men Jirka Homoláč, David Vaš, Robert Míč and Jiří Csirik will all come directly from training in Kenya to Prague. They will face European competition from UKR runners Sitkovskyy and Olefirenko along with the American Andy Wacker who also should be competitive with this group.

The number one ranked Czech woman will be young Kristýna Dvořáková. She set her PB of 1:16:44 last year in the Mattoni České Budějovice Half Marathon.

The 21st Sportisimo Prague Half Marathon starts on April 6th at 10 am CET from Jan Palach Square and will be broadcast and streamed live (links will be posted at RunCzech.com). The capacity of the race has been reached, but registrations for other 2019 RunCzech races, including the 25th Volkswagen Prague Marathon, are still available at www.runczech.com

TOP MEN

KIMELI Benard KEN 0:59:47
KIPROP Stephen KEN 0:58:42
NDIWA Mangata KEN 0:59:07
BELIHU Andamlak ETH 0:59:18
KIBITOK Felix KEN 0:59:21
KIPCHUMBA Abel KEN 0:59:29
OKOMBO Jorum KEN 0:58:47
MOEN Sondre NOR 0:59:48
KOECH Geoffrey KEN 0:59:50
KIPYATICH Abraham KEN 1:00:03
GHEBREGERGIS Yohanes ERI 1:00:16
MARITIM Philimon Kipkorir KEN 1:00:29
KEMEI Moses Kipngetich KEN 1:00:44
KALALE Ishmael Chelanga KEN 1:00:47
KONGA Ronger Kipkorir KEN 1:01:19
RONO Henry KEN 1:01:40
HOMOLÁČ Jiří CZE 1:03:23
SITKOVSKYY Oleksandr UKR 1:03:49
WACKER Andy USA 1:03:26
OLEFIRENKO Igor UKR 1:03:36

TOP WOMEN

CHEMUTAI Fancy KEN 1:04:52
KIPKIRUI Caroline Chepkoech KAZ 1:05:07
MOHAMMET Alia Mohammed Saeed UAE 1:06:13
SALPETER Lonah Chemtai ISR 1:07:55
CHERUIYOT Lucy KEN 1:07:23
CRAGG Amy USA 1:08:27
GEBRE Trihas ESP 1:09:51
FISIKOVICI Lilia MDA 1:10:45
NUKURI Diane USA 1:09:12
MATHATHI Lydie Njeri KEN 1:10:08
GRAY Alia USA 1:12:48
SKRYPAK Olga UKR 1:13:48
DVOŘÁKOVÁ Kristýna CZE 1:16:44
HANZLOVÁ Radka CZE 1:17:16
FILIPIOVÁ Eva CZE 1:19:35

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