In his first competition since finishing 12th in the 10000m final at the IAAF World Championships in London on 4. August (in personal best and Bahrain national record of 27:11.08), Abraham Cheroben returned to the roads with a vengeance in winning the Copenhagen Half Marathon, an IAAF Gold Label road race, on 17. September. After the lead pack passed 10 km in 27:51 (10 runners) and 15 km in 41:53 (4 runners), it ultimately became a three-man race as Cheroben, Jorum Okombo and Alex Korio reached 20 km in 55:51. Cheroben would eventually pull away in the last kilometer to claim victory in a new personal best and Asian record of 58:40, ahead of Okombo (58:48) and Korio (58:51). In addition to moving to the top of the ’17 performance list for the distance, Cheroben is now history’s 3rd-fastest performer in the half marathon, behind only Zersenay Tadese‘s 58:23 (2010) and Sammy Wanjiru‘s 58:33 (2007). Cheroben is no stranger to world no. 1 rankings, as he finished in that spot (by time) for the half marathon and 25 km distances in both 2014 and 2015.
Additional Personae-managed athletes with noteworthy performances during the first half of September included Vincent Rono in the Lille Half Marathon (1st in 59:27 PB, ’17 world no. 10); Marius Kimutai in the Porto Half Marathon (2nd in 1:00:07 PB); Bornes Kitur in the Sydney Marathon (2nd in 2:29:02); Meskerem Assefa in the Copenhagen Half Marathon (5th in 1:07:42 PB, ’17 world no. 16) and Agnes Barsosio in the Copenhagen Half Marathon (6th in 1:08:21 PB).