Running under ideal climate,Ethiopian LelisaDesisaand Kenyan Lucy Kabuu clocked personal bests to win themen’s and women’s overall titles in the Airtel Delhi Half Marathon, the World’sMost Prestigious Half Marathon, an IAAF Gold Label race, on Sunday. Desisa beatback a strong challenge from Kenyan Geoffrey Kipsang, winning the furioussprint in the last 30 odd metres to win in 59.30 minutes, Kipsang finishing onesecond behind in 59.31. Mike Kigen followed home in 59.58, the top threerunners beating the sub-hour mark.

Lucy Kabuu ran a strong tacticalrace to beat back her teammate Sharon Cherop and breast the tape in 67.04minutes. Cherop clocked 67.08, while defending champion, AselefechMergia camehome in 67.21. The high quality of the women’s race saw the top three finishersclock their personal bests.

The Indian performances too wereencouraging, with Suresh Kumar breasting the tape in 64.08, eight second adriftof the Indian course record of 64.00, while the fastest Indian woman wasLalitaBabbar, who stopped the clock at 77.38.

Pacemaker Milton Rotich took therunners through a steady pace during the first half of the race, crossing the10km mark in 28.28.  A large group of around 20 athletes, including lastyear’s runner-up LelisaDesisa and Sammy Kitwara of Kenya, the fastest in theelite men’s start-list with a fast 58:48 for his second place finish in INGPhiladelphia half-marathon this September, were together in the initial stagesof the race.

When the runners went past theJaipur House on Dr. ZakirHussainMarg, Rotich allowed the others to take over,with 15 runners still in the lead group, which began to split as the group wentpast the iconic India Gate and approached the presidential palace, RashtrapathiBhavanon Raj Path.  Kenyan Philemon Limo, Kenyan who won in Prague with apersonal best 59:30, along with Dino Sefir were also among the leaders when thegroup of six went past the 10k mark on SansadMarg, the road to IndianParliament.

On the return journey towards IndiaGate, both Limo and Sefirdropped back and a group of four athletes surged on. Kitwarawas still among the leaders and kepthopes alive for an eventrecord, but with just 3 km to the finish line, the foursome started to run on ina single line with Kitwara beginning to trail at this stage.

At the 20k point, the fight for thetop spot became decisive with LelisaDesisa and Geoffrey Kipsang runningshoulder-to-shoulder.  Mike Kigen was 13 seconds behind the duo andKitwara a little further.

Both Desisa and Kipsang started tosprint as they turned the straight 100m towards the finish at Jawaharlal NehruStadium.  At the end Desia become the second Ethiopian to win the men’stitle at Delhi after the ‘double-take’ by his country-mate DeribaMerga in 2008and 2009.  Although Desisa could not break the course record this time, hehad the satisfaction of improving his personal best timing at thisdistance.  Incidentally his winning time today (59:30) was the third fastestin the AirtelDelhi Half Marathon.   Kipsang, the current junior men’sworld cross-country champion, was just a fraction of second behind thewinner.  The third placed Mike Kigen of Kenya also clocked another sub-60time to make the race memorable.

Pre-race favourite and last year’sworld half-marathon bronze medallist Sammy Kitwara finished fourth in1:00:09.  Five out of ten top finishers registered personal best timings.

“This year’s race was good.  Iam a bit disappointed as I could not post a course record.  I haddiscomfort due to cold, otherwise I could have posted a sub-58 mark” Desisarevealed after the race.

The women’s was even more engrossingwith defending champion AselefechMergia leading the field for a major part ofthe race on her fifth appearance in Delhi.  Having won twice, she wastrying to set a unique record of three wins, however she had to giveup inthe final moments of the race as the pace was very hot.

The Kenyan pair of Lucy Kabuu andSharon Cherop made things difficult for Mergia. The three of them were togetherall the way with another Ethiopian,BelayneshOljira hanging on theirshoulder.  However,the experiencedKabuuthen picked up the pace to leadSharon and Aselefech into what was also expected to be a sprint finish.Finally, Lucy Kabuu pulled away to finish in 67.04, four seconds ahead ofSharon (67.08), while Mergia clocked 67:21 for the third place—all personalbest timings—as also the fourth placed Oljira’s 67:27.

“The support showed by my colleagueCherop was great, which helped me to post a Personal Best and I expect to gobetter when invited again to run here next year,” was Kabuu’s reaction to themedia after her maiden Delhi win.

Both Desisa and Kabuu went home withthe winner’s cheque of USD 25,000 each which derived from a total prize pool ofUSD 210,000.   There was a separate prize money for the top-finishersamong the Indians.  Suresh Kumar (20^th overall) and LalitaBabar (19^th overall) were top male and female among the Indians andbecome richer by USD 4,000 for their effort.

As usual the race witnessed theparticipation of a large number of enthusiasts and celebrities.A host ofdignitaries led by Ajay Makken, Minister of Sports, Govt. of India and Delhi ChiefMinister Sheila Dixit, besides Shahrukh Khan, BipashaBasu and Rajeev Khandelwalwere present to cheer on the participants. Anil Ambani, Siddhartha Mallya,Rahul Bose and GulPanad were among the celebrities who ran and completed theHalf Marathon.

Overall  Athlete Men

Lelisa Desisa(ETH) 00:59:30, Geoffrey Kipsang(KEN) 00:59:31,Mike Kigen (KEN) 00:59:58,SammyKitwara (KEN) 01:00:09,Philemon Limo (KEN) 01:0032, Dino Sefir (ETH)01:00:35,Feyisa Lilesia (ETH) 1:00:50, Tilahun Regassa(ETH) 01:00:59, EzekielCherop(KEN) 01:01:08, Milton Rothich (KEN) 01:01:12.

Overall  Athlete Women:

Lucy Kabbu (KEN)01:07:04, Sharon Cherop (KEN) 01:07:08, Aselefech Mergia (ETH) 01:07:21,Belaynesh Oljira (ETH) 01:07:27, Lydia Chermoei (KEN) 01:08:50, MareDibaba(ETH) 1:08:58, Valentine Kipketer (KEN) 01:09:06, Aberu Kebede (ETH) 01:09:07, Bezunesh Bekle (ETH) 01:09:08, Merime Mohammed (EHT) 01:10:46

Overall Indian Athlete Men:

Suresh Kumar(IND) 01:04:08 (Overall 20^th), Kheta Ram (IND) 01:04:44(Overall 22^nd), Dangi V L (IND) 01:05:02(Overall 24^th), Arjun Prathan (IND)01:05:30(Overall 25^th), Deepchand Saharan (IND) 01:05:59(Overall 26^th),Pritam Bind (IND) 01:06:38, Arvind Kr Yadav (IND) 01:06:56, Ashwini Kumar (IND)01:07:05, Binning Lyngkhoi (IND) 01:07:15,

Overall Indian Athlete Women:

Lalita Babbar(IND) 01:17:38 ( Overall 19^th), Kiran Tiwari (IND) 01:17:59 (Overall 20^th), Swati Gadhave (IND) 1:20:56 (Overall 23^rd),Manisha Dattatray Salukhe (IND) 01:21:09 (Overall 24^th ), PriyankaPatel (IND) 01:21:50 (Overall 25^th), Sangeeta Yadav (IND) 01:21:56(Overall 26^th ), Rohini Raut (IND) 01:21:59 (Overall 27^th),Choba Chanu L (IND) 01:22:20(Overall 28^th), Pampa Chanda (IND)01:22:31, (Overall 29^th) Savita Devi (IND) 01:23:08(Overall 30^th)

Inter-college Sporting Challenge:

Khalsa College(IND) 01:18:08, Igipess (IND) 01:21:12, Delhi Technology University (IND)01:49:20

Men Veteran Category:

Dinesh Kumar01:22:46; Mukesh Rana 01:22:59; Rajnath Pandey 01:24:10.

Women Veteran Category:

Theodora Yardley(USA) 01:48:43; Rina Karer 01:49:26; Vaishali Kasture 01:49:42.

Men Senior Veteran Category:

S.J.Yadav01:31:48; Ajaib Singh 01:36:18; Ram Autar Rajbhar 01:36:42.

Women Senior Veteran Category:

Pervin Batliwala02:05:52; Lise Kirkegaard (Denmark) 02:07:15: Rajam Gopi 02:17:23.

Men Super Veteran Category:

Guru Dayal SinghYadav 01:43:55; Dharam Singh 01:54:51; Krishnan K.R.Iyer 01:58:13.

Women Super Veteran Category:

Navjoban Kaur01:23:43; Anisha Devi 01:25:40; Ranjana Singh 01:29:56.

Amateur Open:

Maina CharlesWachira (KEN) 01:03:56; John Kyalo Kyui (KEN) 01:04:19; Nitendra Singh (IND)01:06:27.

Corporate Sporting Challenge Winners:

1^stPunjab National Bank

2^ndCairn India

Kingfisher Ishtyle Wale Winner:

1^st(Theme) Corruption Monster( Individual)

2^nd(Theme) Formula One Car -Vaibhav Singhal( Individual)

3^rd(Theme) Running Shoes- Disha

Kingfisher Sensation Squad:

1^stCancer Group

2^ndMary Kay

Kingfisher Green Crusader:

1^stPoona Phillips- Save our Environment (Theme)

2^ndAmarjeet R Bains- Solar power girl (Theme)