\u00a0<\/span>New Delhi, 19th October 2018: Ethiopia\u2019s Tirunesh Dibaba and Kenya\u2019s Joyciline Jepkosgei both pronounced themselves fit and ready to go head-to-head at the Airtel Delhi Half Marathon 2018 at the traditional pre-race press conference on Friday.<\/span><\/p>\n Three-time Olympic champion Dibaba ran the outstanding time of 2:18:55 at the Berlin Marathon just over a month ago but believes she has recovered quickly despite the short amount of time between the two races and is ready to challenge for the first prize cheque of USD$27,000 \u2013 the richest half marathon winner\u2019s jackpot in the world \u2013 in India\u2019s capital city.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span>\u201cOne of my plans was to run a 21K (half marathon) after Berlin and my manager told me about Delhi, and I thought it was a good idea,\u201d commented Dibaba, who has turned into one of the world\u2019s top road runners after a star-studded track and cross country career which also included nine world titles on those surfaces.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve recovered more-or-less, although I wanted to run faster in Berlin. I\u2019ve come to Delhi with the first target of winning, I\u2019m not thinking about times too much,\u201d added Dibaba, professing herself somewhat uninterested in the ADHM course record of 66:54 which has belonged to Kenya\u2019s Mary Keitany since 2009.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span>By contrast, although she didn\u2019t put a figure on her ambitions, the current half marathon world record holder Jepkosgei is clearly looking to run quickly in Delhi and hoping that her speed will take her to victory.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span>\u201cI\u2019m very happy to be here \u2013 it\u2019s a privilege to meet Indian people \u2013 and I\u2019m looking to run a fast time although improving on my world record (of 64:51 set in October 2017)\u00a0 Of course, it all depends on the weather and climate,\u201d added the diminutive Kenyan, slightly-built by even the standards of leading female distance runners.<\/span><\/p>\n Delhi has a reputation as a flat and fast course, demonstrated by the times\u00a0 posted by the leading runners in recent years, and the 14th edition of the ADHM \u2013 which has established itself as one of the world\u2019s leading races over the distance \u2013 will have much improved environmental conditions on race day.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span>The temperatures at the early morning start time for the elite races are expected to be in the low 20s (degrees Celsius) and the race promoters Procam International, as part of their commitment to race sustainability, have made strident efforts to diminish the pollution levels of the IAAF Gold Label Road Race.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span>The men\u2019s race will see 2016 Olympic marathoners Gopi Thonakal and Nitender Singh Rawat go head-to-head, the former also the 2017 Asian marathon champion and the latter the leading Indian man in last year\u2019s ADHM.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span>The target for both men, not only Singh Rawat\u2019s Indian ADHM best of 63:53 set in 2017 but the national record of Bugatha Shrinu from Bhopal in 2016.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span>\u201cFifteen years ago, there was no road running culture in India and now we have world record holders and Olympic champions coming here. This is something India can be very proud of,\u201d reflected Vivek Singh, joint managing director of race promoters Procam International.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe fact that runners like Tirunesh (Dibaba) and Joyciline (Jepkosgei) have chosen the ADHM over the many other race options they had it a great statement for this event and for India,\u201d he added.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span>The world running organisation the Association of International Marathons and Distance Races (AIMS) announced that Jepkosgei has been recognised with the AIMS World Record Award.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span>Joyciline set a Half Marathon World Record of 1:04:51 at the Medio Maraton Valencia Trinidad Alfonso EDP on 22 October 2017. In setting the record, Joyciline broke her own record by one second. Vivek Singh, Jt. MD, Procam International, promoters for the Airtel Delhi Half Marathon presented Joyciline with her award.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0 \u00a0New Delhi, 19th October 2018: Ethiopia\u2019s Tirunesh Dibaba and Kenya\u2019s Joyciline Jepkosgei both pronounced themselves fit and ready to go head-to-head at the Airtel Delhi Half Marathon 2018 at the traditional pre-race press conference on Friday. Three-time Olympic champion Dibaba ran the outstanding time of 2:18:55 at the Berlin Marathon just over a month […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shasakprashasak.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shasakprashasak.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shasakprashasak.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shasakprashasak.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shasakprashasak.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3641"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shasakprashasak.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3641\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shasakprashasak.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shasakprashasak.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shasakprashasak.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}