Delhi Half Marathon: Kenyans Matata and Rengeruk win memorable titles; Abhishek and Seema top among Indian runners

New Delhi, Oct 12 (IANS) Experienced Kenyan runners Alex Nzioka Matata and Lilian Kasait Rengeruk have registered notable Kenyan wins in the 20th edition of the Delhi Half Marathon, a World Athletics Gold Label Road Race here on Sunday.

It was only the second time in the event's history that Kenyan runners won both men's and women's titles in the same edition. Francis Kibiwott and Lineth Chepkurui were the first ones to achieve such honours in 2006.

Matata, a runner-up last year behind Ugandan Joshua Cheptegei, broke away from other runners to run a solo race. Having won the RAK half-marathon earlier this year with a personal best 59:20, the Kenyan already had seven sub-60 minutes timings to his credit, including 59:53 from Delhi in 2024.

However, there was no one to push him for the course record (58:53) as the rest of the men's field were more than 60 metres behind him during the second half of the race. Matata, along with his teammate Reuben Rono, crossed the first 10K in 28:43, with six other runners running along with them a shade away. The Kenyan ran a fast second half of the race, breaking away from the others. He went on to take the men's crown in 59:50, to mark his fifth half-marathon win this year.

Ethiopia's Bayelign Teshager finished second (60:22) while Kenyan James Kipkogei took the third spot in 60:25. Pre-race favourite Birhanu Legese finished fourth (60:54).

After the race, Matata said, "I’m very thrilled about the race. Last year I was number two, so my goal was to do better than that. I know the course, which is an advantage, and the weather was on my side. We had a nice cool start. At the 10K mark, I felt I had a good chance of winning. This might be my best race of the season. The course record was not on my mind coming here, the only goal was to win the race and I ran without any pressure, which wasn’t the case last year."

The women applied entirely different tactics, as Rengeruk ran with a pack of half a dozen runners, including Ethiopians Mulat Tekle and Melal Biratu, for most of the race. The trio covered the 10K mark in 32:10, slightly ahead of others, but Kenya's 2023 World Hal fMarathon bronze medallist Catherine Amangole increased her pace to join them briefly.

They ran past the 15K mark together in 48:11. However, she could not maintain her tempo thereafter and started trailing as the runners approached Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium for the finish of the race.

The Indian Elite contest showcased experience and emerging talent as Abhishek Pal and Seema claimed top honours to take home the cash prize of Rs 4,00,000 each.

Pal took victory in the men’s race, clocking 1:04:17, while Seema dominated the women’s field with a time of 1:11:23 to win comfortably. The victory marked Abhishek’s third victory at the Vedanta Delhi Half Marathon, while Seema impressed on her debut, making an immediate impact on one of the World’s most prestigious half marathons.

Following the triumph, Abhishek Pal said, “I’m feeling very good. The road was excellent, completely flat and straight. My brother, who is now my coach, guided me on how to approach the race. People used to tell me that I run from behind, but today I went ahead right from the start and ran alone. Now we’ll work on improving my timing and train properly with them.”

Reflecting on her commanding performance, Seema said, “I’m feeling good, though slightly disappointed because I fell short of the record. Considering the training I had, I delivered a very good time. With two to three months of proper training, I believe I can perform much better next time.”

Abhishek Pal and Kiran Matre (1:04:57) were neck and neck for most of the race, the pair clocked 33:16 at the 10k split and picked up the pace soon after to cross 15km in 43:58, with both athletes weary of each other. It was in the final stretch that the experienced Pal pulled away to secure the victory quite with ease.

Notably, Pal narrowly missed out on surmounting his personal best of 1:04:07 - Vedanta Delhi Half Marathon, October 2023. Mohd Aleem (1:05:20), and Manoj Kumar (1:05:25) were in close pursuit of Karthik Karkera for the majority of the race, but the 28-year-old broke away in the final kilometre to clinch the bronze.

Seema consistently increased the distance between her and the competition as the race progressed to finish comfortably ahead of her peers, the battle for the remaining podium positions was closely fought, with Ujala taking second place in 1:15:41, narrowly ahead of Sanjivani Jadhav, who finished in 1:15:52. Meanwhile, defending champion Lili Das clocked 1:16:27 to place fourth.

--IANS

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