Belihu, Gemechu to defend Airtel Delhi Half Marathontitles
Sportsline Desk
NEW DELHI: Race promoters Procam International are happyto announce that defending champions Andamlak Belihu and Tsehay Gemecu willreturn to the Airtel Delhi Half Marathon for the 16th edition of thisprestigious World Athletics Gold Label Road Race on Sunday, November 29.
The Ethiopian pair will both be aiming for anunprecedented third successive victory in the Indian capital.
“I have been training well in (the Ethiopia capital) AddisAbaba for the last couple of months and I am very thankful to have theopportunity to race in Delhi, a city I always enjoy returning to and racingin,” commented Belihu, who will turn 22 just over a week before race day.
“This has been a difficult year, for everyone around theworld, not just professional athletes, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and I havebeen training lone much more than that I am normally used to but my fifth placeat the World Athletics Half Marathon Championships in Poland last month hasassured me that I am in good shape and I am confident I can put up a gooddefence of my title,” he added.
Belihu's compatriot Guye Adola still holds the ADHMcourse record with 59:06 that the latter clocked in 2014 but Belihu has gonevery close in the last two years with 59:18 and a personal best 59:10 in 2018and2019 respectively.
He will be aiming to finally go into new territory on the streetsof Delhi, perhaps even going under 59 minutes, and confirm his place as the mostsuccessful runner in ADHM history after having also placed second in his racedebut in 2017.
An unprecedented 13 men in the ADHM 2020 elite field haverun under the world class benchmark of one hour, and five of them have actuallyrun faster than Belihu in their careers including Adola who returns to Delhifor the first time since his record run six years ago.
The fastest man in the field is Bahrain's 2018 WorldAthletics Half Marathon Championships silver medallist Abraham Cheroben, whoholds the Asian record for the distance with 58:40.
Two other men to watch will be the Ethiopian pair ofAmdework Walelegn, who was second in Delhi last year and also took the bronzemedal at 2020 World Athletics Half Marathon Championships last month, and 2017and 2019 world 5000m champion Muktar Edris, who will be making his halfmarathon debut.
Last year, Tsehay Gemechu improved her own women's courserecord from 2018 by no less 50 seconds when she ran a stunning personal best of66:00
Ideally, Gemechu would like to go even faster this yearbut, like so many runners around the world, her training and racing this yearhave been hugely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“COVID-19 is a disaster which has affected everyone'slife all over the globe and, definitely, it has affected my training, not leastin the early stages of the pandemic when we were all fearful of infection.Later, my coach and I decided to take care of ourselves, taking into accountall the advice from the World Health Organisation, and I started my ownindividual training programme with my main goal of coming back to Delhi, althoughsince September I have had some races on the track,” reflected Gemechu, who willturn22 in December.
“Like all the athletes who will be coming to Delhi, I'dlike to express my thanks to the race promoters Procam International who havecommitted their time and effort and invested their money in making sure thisrace goes ahead while we all respect the appropriate health measures,” sheadded.
Gemechu will have a host of outstanding rivals in thisyear's race, arguably the strongest women's field ever seen in the history ofthe ADHM with seven women having run under 67 minutes.
Among them are two of her compatriots, Yalemzerf Yehualawand Netsanet Gudeta.
The in-form Yehualaw finished second in the ADHM 2019,just one second behind Gemechu, and showed she's one of the rising stars ofwomen's distance running by finishing third at the World Athletics Half MarathonChampionships last month in a personal best of 65:19 while Gudeta finishedeighth in Polandbut helped Ethiopiato team gold and was the 2018 world halfmarathon champion.
Both the men's and women's races have a first prizecheques of US$27,000 with a total prize money purse (combined men and women) ofUS$233.270.
The ADHM 2020 will be unlike any previous edition withonly an estimated 60 elite international and Indian runners in action on theDelhi roads, with the traditional start and finish in the Jawaharlal NehruStadium, the event being held in a bio-secure bubble.
Non-elite runners of all abilities will have the chance toparticipate virtually from any location, running at any time between25-29November via the ADHM App. Details of how to download and use this app canfound on the ADHM 2020 website airteldelhihalfmarathon.procam.in
Elite fields for the Airtel Delhi Half Marathon 2020 (withpersonal bests)
Men
Andamlak Belihu (ETH) 59:10
Abraham Cheroben (BRN) 58:40
Guye Adola (ETH) 59:06
Amdework Walelegn(ETH) 59:08
Leonard Barsoton (KEN) 59:09
Solomon Berihu (ETH) 59:17
Josphat Boit (KEN) 59:19
Edwin Kiptoo (KEN) 59:26
Stephen Mokoka (RSA) 59:36
Abrar Osman (ERI) 59:47
Aron Kifle (ERI) 59:51
Dawit Wolde (ETH) 59:58
Women
Tsehay Gemechu (ETH) 66:00
Yalemzerf Yehualaw (ETH) 65:19
Ruth Chepngetich (KEN) 65:30
Netsanet Gudeta (ETH) 65:45
Evaline Chirchir (KEN) 66:01
Brillian Kipkoech (KEN) 66:56
Irene Cheptai (KEN) 67:39
Mimi Belete (BRN) 68:16
Failuna Matanga (TAN) 69:36
Nazret Weldu (ERI) 70:51
Tsigie Gebreselama (ETH) debut
Hawi Feysa (ETH) debut
Eva Cherono (KEN) debut
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