The Copenhagen Half Marathon is an annual

half marathon A half marathon is a road running event of —half the distance of a marathon. It is common for a half marathon event to be held concurrently with a marathon or a 5K race, using almost the same course with a late start, an early finish, or shortcu ...

road running Road running is the sport of running on a measured course over an established road. This differs from track and field on a regular track and cross country running over natural terrain. These events are usually classified as long-distance ru ...

event which takes place in September on the city streets of

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

, first held in 2015. It is a

World Athletics World Athletics, formerly known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation and International Association of Athletics Federations and formerly abbreviated as the IAAF, is the international sports governing body, governing body for the sport ...

Gold Label Road Race, making it the foremost race of its type in the country. The race features both public and professional elements. The Copenhagen Half Marathon is the largest annual road running event in the city, followed by the more established

Copenhagen Marathon The Copenhagen Marathon is an annual marathon that takes place on the streets of Copenhagen, Denmark. Established on the 24th of May 1980, it is annually held in May and has around 10,000 participants. It is a World Athletics Bronze Label r ...

, which has been held there since 1980.

Geoffrey Kamworor Geoffrey Kipsang Kamworor (born 22 November 1992) is a Kenyan professional long-distance runner. He won the silver medal in the 10,000 metres at the 2015 World Championships in Athletics. Kamworor claimed victories at the World Half Marathon Ch ...

set the half marathon world record during this race with a time of 58:01 in 2019.

History

The event was launched after the success holding of the 2014 IAAF World Half Marathon Championships in the city. The course was slightly modified for the newly created annual event, with the race starting and finishing near

Parken Stadium Parken, currently known as Parken - Connected by 3 for sponsorship reasons, and as Telia Parken (2014–2020), is a Soccer-specific stadium, football stadium in the Indre Østerbro (''Inner Østerbro'') district of Copenhagen, Denmark, built from ...

. Nearly 20,000 runners took part in the inaugural edition in 2015. The first winners were both Kenyan, with Bedan Karoki Muchiri taking the men's race in 59:14 minutes and Purity Cherotich Rionoripo being the women's winner in 68:29 minutes. Over 22,000 runners took part in the 2016 edition. The winners were James Mwangi Wangari from Kenya taking the men's race in 59:07 minutes and Purity Cherotich Rionoripo from Ethiopia being the women's winner in 68:00 minutes, both beating the existing course record. It held the

IAAF Silver Label Road Race World Athletics Label Road Races are races that World Athletics (until 2019: ''IAAF'') designates as the "leading road races around the world." The classification was first introduced for the 2008 running season, upon the suggestion of the IAAF R ...

status in 2016 and the IAAF Gold Label Road Race in 2017. The 2020 edition of the race was cancelled due to the

coronavirus Coronaviruses are a group of related RNA viruses that cause diseases in mammals and birds. In humans and birds, they cause respiratory tract infections that can range from mild to lethal. Mild illnesses in humans include some cases of the comm ...

pandemic A pandemic ( ) is an epidemic of an infectious disease that has a sudden increase in cases and spreads across a large region, for instance multiple continents or worldwide, affecting a substantial number of individuals. Widespread endemic (epi ...

, with all registrants given the option of transferring their entry to 2021 or obtaining a refund.

Winners

Key:

Notes

References

External links

Official website
{{IAAF Gold Label Half marathons Sports competitions in Copenhagen Athletics competitions in Denmark Recurring sporting events established in 2015 2015 establishments in Denmark Annual events in Denmark September in sports Autumn in Denmark