It has only been a part of the World Masters Athletics Champs since 2013. World Masters do not, as yet, maintain official world records for this event.

The half marathon is an event that has grown in popularity over the last 20 years. Unlike the full marathon, it has never been contested at the Olympics or IAAF World Championships but since 1992 it has had its own separate championship.

The first three finishers per country within each age group count towards the teams. The team ranking is determined by the aggregate of the three times. Where a country does not have three entrants within an age group, they can opt to drop up to two competitors from older age groups down to form complete teams. This cannot be done if a complete team already exists. The decision to do this must be logged by team managers prior to the race (presumably to prevent strategic DNFs by competitors).

Individual half marathon results are here.

The event will replace the marathon as a mandatory part of the event programme from 2018.