World record holder for Delhi Half Marathon

NEW DELHI: Kenya’s world half marathon record holder Joyciline Jepkosgei has been added to the women’s elite field for the Airtel Delhi Half Marathon, brightening prospect of a mouth-watering head-to-head with three-time Olympic gold medallist Tirunesh Dibaba.The pair have met twice before. Firstly, at last year’s Ras al Khaimah Half Marathon when Jepkosgei finished third and the Ethiopian legend was fifth; secondly in May this year at the Manchester 10km when Dibaba got the upper hand with a convincing win — 31:08 to 31:57 — with the Kenyan runner second.

However, Jepkosgei will come for the October 21 race in fine form buoyed by a half marathon win over a classy local field in a high-altitude race in her native Kenya last Sunday.

“The Airtel Delhi Half Marathon is my first-ever trip to India and so I am very much looking forward to visiting and also competing against, once again, Tirunesh Dibaba as well as the rest of the field of accomplished and confident women,” said the 24-yearold Jepkosgei, who set a world half marathon best of 64:52 in Prague in April 2017 and improved that mark by one second to 64:51 in 12 months ago.

Sandwiched between these two record-breaking half marathon outings, Jepkosgei also became the first woman to run under 30 minutes for 10km on the roads when she he ran a world record of 29:43 on her return to Prague in September 2017.