The Valencia Half-Marathon and Marathon strengthen their lead as Spain’s best road races

For yet another year, the Half-Marathon and the Valencia-Trinidad Alfonso EDP Marathon have consolidated their position in the Royal Spanish Athletics Federation’s (RFEA) ranking as the best trials in Spain for their respective distances following the results achieved in the 2017-2018 season.

In drawing up its ranking, the RFEA takes into account various factors: organisational capabilities; the track record of the event in the RFEA calendar; number of runners; the sporting level of the trial; the level of the athletes taking part in the last three running seasons. This recognition comes in a year in which both trials have chalked up many new records.

The Half-Marathon sets a new world record

In the Valencia Half-Marathon, the Kenyan athlete Abraham Kiptum made history by setting a new world record of 58:18. He was the fastest of the ten athletes who ran the race in under an hour, setting a historic record of 4,821 points in the 2017/2018 season. This easily outstripped the 2,922 points awarded to the eDreams Barcelona Half-Marathon and the 1,870 points gained by the Madrid Half-Marathon. The Valencia trial, organised by SD Correcaminos (running club) will thus further lengthen its lead in the official RFEA ranking (3,258 points — the average of the last three editions).

The Marathon is on a winning streak

The Valencia-Trinidad Alfonso EDP Marathon gained 3,454 points in its 37th edition (held in 2017) with Kitwara’s victory, marking the opening of the 2017-2018 athletics season (now being analysed by the RFEA). This score was well above the 2,604 points gained by the ‘Zurich’ Seville Marathon and the 1,885 points racked up by the ‘Zurich’ Barcelona Marathon. The Valencia trial also beats the average of the last three editions, given that the race (which is organised by SD Correcaminos (running club) and Valencia City Council) chalked up 3,169 points — a figure that does not reflect the sizzling times in 2018 or the new record set by Leul Gebrselassie (2:04:31), both of which will add lots of points to the figure for this season.

[vcr_button url=”http://www.rfea.es/estadis/pdf/punruta2018.pdf” target=”blank” background=”#030100″ color=”#ffffff” size=”10″ wide=”yes” center=”yes” radius=”20″ icon=”icon: chevron-circle-right” icon_color=”#ffffff” text_shadow=”0px 0px 0px #ffffff” class=”boton-vcr-std”] RFEA Ranking of the best races in Spain[/vcr_button]