page_title: 2010 IAAF World Half Marathon Championships
section_title: Women's race
hierarchical_section_title: 2010 IAAF World Half Marathon Championships / Women's race
caption_attribution_description: Picture of Dire Tune running in the Boston Marathon 2008 at Wellesley Square
context_page_description: The 2010 IAAF World Half Marathon Championships was held in Nanning, China on 16 October 2010. The competition took place on the city streets, beginning and ending at Wuxiang Square, with a total prize purse of US$245,000 at stake.
  The Kenyan athletes emerged with both the individual and team titles in the men's and women's races. Despite limited experience in top level half marathon races, Wilson Kiprop and Florence Kiplagat won their respective races. Kiprop broke Zersenay Tadese's winning streak which dated back to 2006, out-sprinting the defending champion in the final stages. Sammy Kitwara won the men's bronze medal and helped Kenya to the men's team title. Led by Zersenay, the Eritrean men beat Ethiopia to the team silver medal spot.
  Kiplagat, who was ever present at the front of the women's race, outdid Ethiopian Dire Tune in the last kilometre to win her second gold medal on the global stage. Mirroring Kitwara, Kenya's women's bronze medallist Peninah Jerop Arusei secured the team's victory over Ethiopia. Representing the hosts, Zhu Xiaolin was the only non-African to reach the top eight at the championships.
context_section_description: The provisional favourite for the women's race was Kenyan runner Florence Kiplagat, who was the fastest entrant in the field through her win at the Lille Half Marathon in September (also her debut for the distance). Her compatriots Peninah Arusei and Sarah Chepchirchir – second and third in Lille – completed the strongest three of the Kenyan women's team, which was considered the team to beat for the title. The Ethiopians, led by Boston Marathon winner Dire Tune, were their main opposition for the team race, although the nation had sent relatively inexperienced runners to the championships on this occasion. China's leading athlete was Zhu Xiaolin, who despite being an established marathon runner had less experience over the half distance. Although Japan lacked a leading figure individually, their overall consistency (which had brought them team medals in the last five editions) demonstrated their team pedigree. Kenya entered the tournament as the reigning team champions.
  The beginning to the race highlighted the dominance of the Kenyan and Ethiopian runners as they set a high tempo from the outset. By the time the first 5 km marker was passed, Australia's Nikki Chapple was the only athlete left in the leading pack to come from outside the two historically strong nations. A few kilometres later, she dropped back from the pack and at the 10 km mark five Ethiopians and four Kenyans had a fifteen-second advantage on the rest of the field. As the race reached the midway point, the temperature began to increase and the heat and humidity reduced the pace of the runners. The conditions took their toll on some of the leaders in this section of the race. Chepchirchir slowed considerably while Meseret Mengistu, Joyce Chepkirui and Fate Tola were the next to gradually lose contact with the front runners. Kiplagat, Dire, Arusei and Feyse Tadese were the sole contenders remaining as the race headed towards the final stages, but Kiplagat and Dire soon left the other two trailing a few minutes later.
  Despite Dire's greater experience over long distances, it was Kiplagat who forged ahead in the last kilometre and she won the race with ten seconds to spare over her Ethiopian rival. Arusei was the third across the line half a minute later, while Feyse Tadese, Joyce Chepkirui, Meseret Mengistu and Fate Tola took places 4–7 around one minute behind the winner. It was Arusei's clear third place which proved the difference between the top African teams, as Kenya won the team gold by a margin of 34 seconds over Ethiopia. A strong final phase saw Zhu Xiaolin take eighth place for the hosts, which was the best non-African individual performance that year. Japan's Yoshimi Ozaki and Ryoko Kizaki were immediately behind her, failing to get a top eight finish but yet again leading the country to the team bronze with a buffer of over six minutes between them and Australia.
  Kiplagat collected her first international road running title in only her second effort over the half marathon distance – her second world title after the senior crown at the 2009 IAAF World Cross Country Championships. She said her next priority would be taking a medal on the track "That is my goal for next year (World Championships in Daegu) and at the next Olympics". For Dire and Arusei – both prolific road runners – this was their first individual medal on the world stage. The younger Ethiopians (Feyse Tadese, Meseret Mengistu and Fate Tola) missed out on the medals but still set personal bests for the half marathon, as did Kenyan Joyce Chepkirui.
caption: Dire Tune (shown running at the Boston Marathon) led the Ethiopian women's challenge
exif: {"Image Make": "NIKON CORPORATION", "Image Model": "NIKON D70", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS2 Windows", "Image DateTime": "2008:04:21 14:58:40", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "228", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "966", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "6666", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/1000", "EXIF FNumber": "28/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Shutter Priority", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2008:04:21 09:49:37", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2008:04:21 09:49:37", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "4", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "5", "EXIF MeteringMode": "CenterWeightedAverage", "EXIF LightSource": "Tungsten (incandescent light)", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire", "EXIF FocalLength": "300", "EXIF SubSecTime": "10", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "10", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "10", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "748", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1000", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "840", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CVAPattern": "[0, 2, 0, 2, 2, 1, 1, 0]", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Manual", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "450", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0"}