Peres Jepchirchir, who set a new women-only world 21km record on Saturday, has come a long way.
Despite facing arguably the strongest 21km field ever, Jepchirchir became the fourth woman to win multiple times at the World Athletics World Half Marathon Championships. She outsprinted German’s Melat Kejeta and Ethiopia’s Yalemzerf Yehualaw to win in Gdynia, Poland, in 65:16 – a new world record for a women’s-only race.