Delhi Half Marathon: Joshua Cheptegei takes home crown, Alemaddis Eyayu stuns Cynthia Limo

Olympian Joshua Cheptegei lived up to his billing to take home the men’s crown. At the same time, Alemaddis Eyayu pushed pre-race favourite Cynthia Limo behind for a surprise win in the women’s race in Vedanta Delhi Half Marathon, a World Athletics Gold Label Road Race, in New Delhi on Sunday.

Kenya’s Alex Matata (27) led a major part of the race with his teammate Nicholas Kipkorir, who ran his maiden half marathon internationally. Kipkorir was a bronze medalist in the 5 km World Championships last year.

Matata was unbeaten in all three races he took part in in Europe earlier this year, clocking sub-60 minutes in two of them.That made the race exciting, and everyone was looking for fast finish timing from the men’s winner.Matata keptthe lead until the runners turned towards the finish line in the Jawahar Lal Nehru Stadium, where the race commenced less than an hour earlier to decide the 2024 title.Cheptegei, running seconds behind the Kenyan, realized the now-or-never situation and came from behind to snatch the lead from Matata to win in 59 minutes 46 seconds. Matata (59:53) and Kipkorir (59:59) completed the podium with the Ugandan.

Incidentally, the Vedanta Delhi half marathon was one of the fastest races in the World and usually saw incredible timings by the participants. Ethiopian Deriba Merga was the first to post a sub-60-minute winning time in 2008, when all the podium finishers dipped under 1 hour. This action was repeated several times in some of the subsequent editions at Delhi, wherein 2014 witnessed a record number of nine runners finishing within 60 minutes.

Former world champion Muktar Edris from Ethiopia, another pre-race favourite, finished fifth (60:52), while Tanzania’s Alphonce Simbu (60:40) got the fourth place.

Eyayu beats favourite Limo to win the women’s title

Alemaddis Eyayu extended the Ethiopian winning streak in Delhi.Kenya’s Cynthia Limo, the pre-race favourite, led the field right from the beginning, while Scotland’s Commonwealth Champion Eilish McColgan trailed behind all the time.McColgan had the fastest and only sub-66 minute timing among the elite women who took the starting lineup.However, two Ethiopians, Eyayu and Tiruye Mesfin stuck with Limo for the entire part.