The Barcelona Half Marathon filled the city streets with over 36,000 runners, a record turnout for the event, which is celebrating its 37th edition and remains strong. The men's race was won by Ethiopian Hagos Gebrhiwet with a time of 58 minutes and 5 seconds, while the women's race was won by Kenyan Loice Chemnung, who set a new course record of 1 hour, 4 minutes, and 1 second. Chemnung was the star of the day, establishing the new Barcelona course record by surpassing the mark of her compatriot Joyciline Jepkosgei, whose time of 1 hour, 4 minutes, and 13 seconds was achieved a year ago. Chemnung improved her personal best and achieved the sixth fastest time ever recorded in the women's category. American Weini Kelati finished second (1:06:03), and Ethiopian Diniya Abaraya came in third. In the men's category, Hagos Gebrhiwet established a strong lead from the start, setting a pace that suggested he could approach the all-time best, as he was running at a similar speed to the world record. Ultimately, he couldn't maintain the high pace he had set, but he won convincingly ahead of Switzerland's Dominic Lobalu (59:25) and France's Emmanuel Roudolff (59:35). The race was marked by the debate surrounding the milestone achieved by Ugandan Jacob Kiplimo a year ago, when he broke the world record with a time of 56:40. However, just a few days ago, World Athletics, the governing body for athletics, announced that it had decided not to validate the mark, considering that Kiplimo benefited from the presence of a vehicle, as he ran behind it for a while. Thus, it was decided that the time remains official as the best of the Barcelona event but is not considered a world record. A decision that Barcelona City Council's Sports Councillor, David Escudé, describes as "difficult to understand." "We will fight to change this decision. Barcelona City Council will go all the way. We understand absolutely nothing: neither the delay, nor the result, nor the lack of information, nor the fact that the best time is recognized but not the record," says Escudé, who hinted that pressure from those in charge of the Half Marathon, which Ethiopian Yomif Kejelcha had achieved in 2024 in Valencia with a time of 57 minutes and 30 seconds, was behind this decision.

The 2025 Barcelona Half Marathon will be remembered for two reasons. One, the record number of participants, with more than 30,000 athletes filling the streets on a cold morning. But especially for the second, the new world record for the discipline, the work of the Ugandan Jacob Kiplimo, who stopped the clock with a time of 56 minutes and 42 seconds. The previous world record was held by the Ethiopian Yomif Kejelcha, achieved in 2024 in Valencia, with a time of 57 minutes and 30 seconds. Curiously, when Kejelcha achieved this world record, he left Kiplimo himself without a record, who had already achieved the best time in history in 2021 in Lisbon with a time of 57 minutes and 31 seconds. Today he has set his second world record with a memorable race.