Almaz and Ebenyo claim Delhi half marathon titles
The Hindu
athletics
New Delhi
Ethiopian Rio Olympic champion Almaz Ayana reclaimed the title she won six years ago, completing the 18th Delhi Half Marathon on Sunday in 1:07:58 while Kenya’s Daniel Ebenyo ran under 60 minutes to take the top spot in 59 minutes 27 seconds.
Maintaining a steady pace for a large part of the race, Almaz slowed down towards the end, comfortably ahead of second-placed Uganda’s Stella Chesang, who finished 28 seconds behind to better her own third-placed finish in 2022. Kenyan Viola Chepngeno finished third in 1:09:09.
“It was not an easy race and the weather was a bit hot as well. But this race has helped me prepare for future events,” Almaz said.
In the men’s section, eight Kenyan runners along with Ethiopian Addisu Gobena broke away early for the lead pack and stayed together until World Half Marathon runner-up Ebenyo and compatriot Chales Matata accelerated to open up the race, finishing within half-a-minute of each other. Gobena completed the podium 46 seconds behind Matata.
Among the Indian elite runners, Abhishek Pal and Asian Games 10,000m silver medallist Kartik Kumar stayed together all through the race before the former inched ahead to finish in 1:04:07, fraction of a second ahead of Kartik (1:04:08). Abhishek also finished in the top-10 among all elite runners. Sawan Barwal finished third in 1:04:17. Among Indian women, Kavita Yadav took the top spot in her debut in the event with a timing of 1:17:42 while Rima Patel (1:17:48) and Poonam Dinkar Sonune (1:17:49) finished second and third respectively.
Important results:
Asian Games champion Avinash Sable opened his season in the 3000m steeple chase with a silver in the Portland Track Festival, a World Athletics Continental Tour bronze event, in Oregon on Saturday. He clocked 8:21.85s. Asian champion Parul Chaudhary took the bronze in the women’s 3000m steeple chase in a season-best 9:31.38s. Former Asian bronze medallist Sanjivani Jadhav struck gold in the women’s 10,000m in 32:22.77s, a time which was a second off her personal best, while Seema was sixth in 32:55.91s.