European 5000m gold medallist Konstanze Klosterhalfen set a new German 10km road record of 30:46 at the Ruta Villa de Laredo road race in Spain on Saturday (24).
It snipped a single second off the previous record held by Melat Kejeta since October 2020. For Klosterhalfen, it slashed 21 seconds off her previous best set at the same race last year and is also faster than her track personal best over the same distance (31:01.71).
It underscores a return to form for the Munich 2022 champion after a spell on the sidelines last year caused by illness.
Behind Klosterhalfen, there was also a Spanish record for Carla Gallardo who finished second in 31:11.
Brilliant return
Having made a brilliant return to action with silver in the senior women’s race at the Antalya 2024 SPAR European Cross Country Championships in December, she now looks set for a return to the track ahead of September’s World Athletics Championships in Tokyo.
The time also put Klosterhalfen second on this year’s European lists behind only Slovenia’s Klara Lukan, who clocked 30:26 in Castellón last February. In the men’s race, Sudanese-born Refugee Jamal Abdelmaji Eissa Mohamed won in 27:48, two seconds ahead of Great Britain’s Emile Cairess.
Chris Broadbent for European Athletics