Netsanet Gudeta Kebede en-route to a women's-only race half marathon world record in Valencia ©IAAF/Twitter

Netsanet Gudeta Kebede of Ethiopia broke the women's-only race world record in the half marathon today, clocking 1 hour 6min 11sec at the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) World Half Marathon Championships in Valencia.

On a day when Kenya's Geoffrey Kamworor completed a hat-trick of wins in the men's senior race, Gudeta's performance shattered the previous record of 1:06:25 for a single-sex race set by Kenyan-born Dutch racer Lornah Kiplagat at the 2007 IAAF World Road Running Championships in Udine, Italy.

Running with a four-woman lead group at 10 kilometres, Gudeta, 27, broke clear as she approached the 15-kilometre point, having pieced together a four-second lead on a flat, wide course that organisers had billed as the fastest yet in the Spanish city.

Never threatened, she forged on alone, improving her lead with every kilometre.

By 20km she was 40 seconds ahead of the nearest challenger, Kenyan Pauline Kamulu.

Geoffrey Kamworor completed a hat-trick of wins in the men's senior race ©IAAF
Geoffrey Kamworor completed a hat-trick of wins in the men's senior race ©IAAF

Joyciline Jepkosgei of Kenya, the pre-race favourite who set the absolute world record of 1:04.51 in the same city on October 22, passed her team-mate in the final two kilometres to finish second in 1:06:54, 43 seconds behind Gudeta.

Kamulu hung on for bronze in a personal best 1:06:56.

Kamworor's was an equally dominating victory as he clocked 1:00:02 after breaking clear of a large pack just after 15km.

Abraham Cheroben of Bahrain was second in 1:00:22 and Aron Kifle of Eritrea took the bronze in 1:00:31.