Sweden’s Andreas Almgren produced a superb championship performance in Copenhagen, winning the men’s half marathon at the World Athletics Road Running Championships in a new European record of 58:06.

Almgren and Kenya’s Nicholas Kipkorir were locked together through much of the race, but the Swede timed his final move perfectly. He pulled away on the finishing stretch past Parken to win by five seconds, with Kipkorir taking silver in 58:11. Uganda’s Joshua Cheptegei claimed bronze in a personal best of 58:26.

The European record was particularly significant because Almgren was already the previous record-holder. He had run 58:41 in Valencia on 26 October 2025, becoming the first European athlete to break 59 minutes for the half marathon. His Copenhagen run therefore took a remarkable 35 seconds off his own European record.

For comparison, the current men’s world record is 56:51, set by Ethiopia’s Yomif Kejelcha in Buenos Aires on 23 August 2026. That performance improved on Jacob Kiplimo’s 57:20 from Lisbon earlier in the year. Kiplimo had also run a much faster 56:42 in Barcelona in 2025, but World Athletics later confirmed that performance could not be ratified as a world record because the course conditions did not fully comply with the rules.

Almgren’s 58:06 moved him to ninth on the world all-time list and secured his first global gold medal, adding another major achievement to a season in which he had already established himself as one of Europe’s leading endurance runners.

Behind the medal positions, Ethiopia’s Tadese Worku ran a personal best of 58:35 for fourth, with Kenya’s Gideon Rono fifth in 58:57.

For Almgren, Copenhagen was not just a championship victory, but a substantial rewriting of the European half-marathon record.