Guye Adola of Ethiopia emulated countrymate Atsedu Tsegay’s feat from last year to win the Airtel Delhi Half Marathon in the international elite men’s category while Kenya’s Florence Kiplagat successfuly defended her title in the women’s category here on Sunday.
In a lung bursting run of 59:06 minutes, year’s third quickest time, he edged out one of the favourites Geoofrey Kamworor to set a new course record. In the process, he also broke Tsegay’s best time of 59:12 by six seconds (set in 2013).Kamworor finished with a time of 59:07 and Mosinet Geremew of Ethiopia rounded up the podium. In the hard fought and record breaking race, the top-4 timings were quicker than the previous course record, earning them a bonus of $7,500.
In the international elite women’s category, Kiplagat defended her crown with a sprint finish to stop the clock at 1:10:04. Behind her, Gladys Cherono finished with 1:10:05 and Worknesh Degefa of Ehtiopia finished third with the timing of 1:10:07.
The battle between Adola and Kamworor came down to the final kilometer as both were neck and neck at that point. From then on, Adola took the lead and kept looking back multiple times to see where his competition was. Despite Kamworor’s late surge, it wasn’t enough as he was a second behind the Ethiopian upon crossing the finish line. On the finish line, Kamworor hugged the Ethiopian.
Ten runners stayed together till the 19 km mark but with two km to go, Adola took the lead with Kamworor right by his side.This was 24-year-old Adola’s third half marathon and with this timing, he set a new personal best as well. later he said, “The competition is very stiff. Given that, I am very happy with the record. It was very cold early in the morning and I’m elated with the win. This was my third half marathon having earlier participated in Morocco and Copenhagen. In Copenhagen I finished third with Geoffrey winning the race.”
Kamworor finished second in Delhi for the third time and had to push in the final 10 km to stay in contention after a slow start. “It was a very nice and competitive race. The lineup was extremely strong. For the first 10k, the pace was a bit slow and then it picked up with last 5k being very fast. It was a good race, I tried but my friend beat me and I’m happy with the result. Next time, I’ll go for the win,” he said.
Mosinet another Ethiopian was outpaced by Kamworor in the final 400 metres. later he said, “It is a nice course and this was my personal best. The competition was hard and we had to fight for it.”
If the men’s competition needed someone to speed away in the final 2 kilometres, in the women’s category, a sprint finish was required to decide the winner. A group of four athletes formed with 200 metres to go and with less than half of that to go, Kiplagat used her track running experience to finish ahead of her compatriot. “It was a tough race due to a strong field. My strategy was to stay level with other ladies throughout the race. In the end I had to sprint for the win,” she said after the win.
When asked what was going through her mind at that stage, she said it was all about self belief. “I was just thinking that I am stronger than them and I went for it. It was just that whoever is stronger, will win.”
Cherono finishing a second behind her, acknowledged that the final timings were slower than expected. “I think the timings this year are slower than last year and it’s because of the strong field and everyone was hesitant to go for the lead. Florence used her training and speed of the track to get ahead in the final 200 metres. We just stayed with her up until final 100-200 metres.”
Winners in both categories took home $27,000 with the event seeing an increase in purse value.