Ethiopia’s two-time 5000m world champion, Muktar Edris eyes course record at Delhi Half Marathon

Muktar Edris, has set his sights on breaking the course record at the Vedanta Delhi Half Marathon, scheduled to be held on a beautifully laid out race route here on Sunday. Edris, whose summer season was derailed by an untimely calf injury, has landed in India with a target of producing the fastest half-marathon time ever seen in the country and beating the course record of 58:53 set by his compatriot Amedework Walelegn in 2020.

It would earn him a $12,000 bonus in addition to a winner’s cheque of $27,000.

Edris had made an impressive debut in Delhi in 2020 and finished fourth on that occasion with a timing of 59:04. The 28-year-old improved his personal best in the Spanish city of Valencia 12 months ago to 58:40 to make him the fastest runner in the 17th edition of the World Athletics Elite Label Race, which is one of the world’s most prestigious races over the distance.

“Sunday will be only my third half marathon but I will certainly try for the course record. I am now back in good shape. I ran well [over 5000m on the track] at the Diamond League in Rome in the summer but had some calf problems after another race in Paris. When I went to Eugene [to defend his world title], I didn’t get a good result but now everything is much better,” commented Edris at the pre-race press conference.

Just two weeks ago, Edris had his first race since the World Athletics Championships in July and got a morale-boosting 10km win on the roads in Trento, Italy over a high-quality field.

Among Edris’s challengers on Sunday will be Kenya’s Felix Kipkoech and Ethiopia’s Chala Regasa, the second and third fastest men in the field with personal bests of 58:57 and 59:10, respectively.In the elite women’s section, Kenya’s Irine Cheptai – already a winner in India at this year’s TCS World 10K Bengaluru in May – revealed that she would soon end her track career to focus on marathons.“Next year, I want to run my first marathon and so this race is a preparation for that,” said the 2017 world cross country champion and the fastest woman in the international elite field with a personal best of 66:43.

Cheptai’s main rival will be Ethiopia’s Lemlem Hailu, the 2022 world indoor 3000m champion, who will be making her debut over the distance having never run further than four miles before.

posted Saturday October 15th