Samuel Barata broke the Portuguese half marathon record this Sunday, becoming the first Portuguese to surpass the hour, covering the distance in 59.40 minutes, in Valencia, Spain.
With this mark, Barata, who was 14th in Valencia, was more than a minute ahead of the previous best national mark, which belonged to Luís Jesus, since 1997, when he ran in 1:00.56 hours.
On October 1, at the Riga Half Marathon World Championships, Samuel Barata had already achieved the second best Portuguese time in history, with a time of 1:01.29 hours.
The previous month, in Brasov, Romania, measurement errors had prevented the Benfica athlete from achieving the national road records of 5,000 meters and 10,000 meters, who had already expressed his desire to qualify for the marathon at the Olympic Games.
In a race won by Kenyan Kibiwott Kandie (57.40 minutes), Rui Pinto was 27th, in 1:02.24 hours, eight seconds off his personal best.
Source: TSF
