Mary Keitany put a less than ideal build-up behind her to take the World Half Marathon title in record time in Birmingham.

The Kenyan's superb front running display saw her post a world 15 kilometres record of 46 minutes 51 seconds before finishing in a UK all-comers' record time of one hour, six minutes and 36 seconds despite being held in a broken lift for an hour on Sunday

Living up to her pre-race favourite's tag, Keitany was never challenged after pulling away from her rivals just before 10 kilometres.

Her success helped Kenya to its third team success in four years.

The 27-year-old, who was runner-up two years ago when Lornah Kiplagat set her world record of one hour, six minutes and 25secs in Udine, easily blew away the challenges of team-mate Philes Ongori who finished in 1:07.38 and Ethiopia's Aberu Kebede in third.

Keitany admitted she had been affected by her claustrophobic experience when she missed the pre-race press conference when trapped for almost an hour.

"I thought I would collapse. Inside there it was very hot and we were all sweating so I drank lots and lots of water," Keitany said after collecting cheques of US Dollars 30,000 for her victory and US Dollars 50,000 for the world record at 15KM.

The Kenyan's overall team time of 3:22.30 saw them easily beat Ethiopia and Russia who recorded 3:26.14 and 3:31.23.

Zersenay Tadese also lived up to his formidable reputation when winning a third successive half marathon gold medal in the men's race.

The Eritrean took control around 10km and bested by 21 seconds the championship record he shared with Shemn Kororia with a time of 59min 35sec.

Well behind him Kenya's Bernard Kipyego, only six months after making his half marathon debut, won a sprint for the line to grab the silver medal by a second from American Dathan Ritzenhein in 59min 59sec.

"The race was very hard and windy, it was not easy and there were some tough athletes competing," Tadese said after adding another medal to his world cross country bronze and 10,000m track successes this year.

Kenya won the team race for a fourth successive occasion in a time of 2:07.58 with Tadese leading Eritrea to the silver medals (2:08.41) ahead of Ethiopia (2:11.34).

The British women, led home by Claire Hallisey in 25th position, took seventh place in their race while the men, led by Andrew Lemoncello in 26th finished 14th overall.