2020 Delhi Half Marathon (Nov 29th) Is Loaded As Usual – 12 sub-60 men and 9 sub-70 women will compete

by LetsRun.com
Novermber 11, 2020

At the end of the month, on November 29th, one of the most prestigious and richest half marathons in the world – the Airtel Delhi Half Marathon will be held. Past champions include many stars such as Geoffrey Mutai, Eliud Kipchoge, Worknesh Degefa, Almaz Ayana and many more (full list here). This year’s race is loaded as usual as the elite fields were released this morning. The men’s field, which is led by two-time defending champ Andamlak Belihu of Ethiopia, includes 12 men who have broken 60:00. The 21-year old Belihu, who was 5th in the 10,000 at World last year and 5th at the World Half Marathon Champs last month, has a 59:10 pb.

The women’s field, which will include two-time defending champ Tsehay Gemechu of Ethiopia, will have 9 women in it with a sub-70:00 pb. The 21-year old Gemechu, who has a 14:29 5000 pb and was 4th at Worlds in the 5,000 in 2019, is an interesting entrant as the only two times she’s run a half marathon in her life have come in Delhi and she’s won both races. 

The full elite fields with PBs appears below. Below that is the official press release.

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MB: A race to get excited about – 2021 Delhi Half Marathon (Nov 29th) is loaded as usual.

Elite fields for the Airtel Delhi Half Marathon 2020 (with personal bests) 

Defending champion Andamlak Belihu retains his men’s title at the 15th Delhi Half Marathon, at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in New Delhi, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2019. Photo Piyal Bhattacharjee

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 

Ethiopia’s Tsehay Gemechu celebrates after crossing the finish line during the Airtel Delhi Half Marathon in New Delhi on Sunday. Photo Piyal Bhattacharjee

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 

Belihu and Gemechu to defend Airtel Delhi Half Marathon titles Course record holder Adola returns to Delhi 

Press Release
Wednesday 11 November 2020 (for immediate use) 

Race promoters Procam International are happy to announce that defending champions  Andamlak Belihu and Tsehay Gemecu will return to the Airtel Delhi Half Marathon for the 16th  edition of this prestigious World Athletics Gold Label Road Race on Sunday 29 November. 

The Ethiopian pair will both be aiming for an unprecedented 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 the opportunity to race in Delhi, a city I always enjoy returning to and  racing in,” commentedBelihu, who will turn 22 just over a week before race day. 

“This has been a difficult year, for everyone around the world, not just professional athletes, due  to the COVID-19 pandemic and I have been training alone much more than that I am normally  used to but my fifth place at the World Athletics Half Marathon Championships in Poland last  month has assured me that I am in good shape and I am confident I can put up a good defence of  my title,” he added. 

Belihu’s compatriot Guye Adola still holds the ADHM course record with 59:06 that the latter  clocked in 2014 but Belihu has gone very close in the last two years with 59:18 and a personal  best 59:10 in 2018 and 2019 respectively. 

He will be aiming to finally go into new territory on the streets of Delhi, perhaps even going under  59 minutes, and confirm his place as the most successful runner in ADHM history after having  also placed second in his race debut in 2017. 

An unprecedented 13 men in the ADHM 2020 elite field have run under the world class  benchmark of one hour, and five of them have actually run faster than Belihu in their careers  including Adola who returns to Delhi for the first time since his record run six years ago. 

The fastest man in the field is Bahrain’s 2018 World Athletics Half Marathon Championships  silver medallist Abraham Cheroben, who holds the Asian record for the distance with 58:40. 

Two other men to watch will be the Ethiopian pair of Amdework Walelegn, who was second in  Delhi last year and also took the bronze medal at 2020 World Athletics Half Marathon  Championships last month, and 2017 and 2019 world 5000m champion Muktar Edris, who will be making his half marathon debut.

Procam International Pvt. Ltd. A-262, 1st Floor, Defence Colony, New Delhi – 110024. India, Tel. +91112433 5984/85/86 Fax +911141634836

Last year, Tsehay Gemechu improved her own women’s course record from 2018 by no less  50 seconds when she ran a stunning personal best of 66:00 

Ideally, Gemechu would like to go even faster this year but, like so many runners around the world, her training and racing this year have been hugely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“COVID-19 is a disaster which has affected everyone’s life all over the globe and, definitely, it  has affected my training, not least in 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 account all the  advice from the World Health Organisation, and I started my own individual training programme  with my main goal of coming back to Delhi, although since September I have had some races on  the track,”reflected Gemechu, who will turn 22 in December. 

“Like all the athletes who will be coming to Delhi, I’d like to express my thanks to the race  promoters Procam International who have committed their time and effort and invested their  money in making sure this race goes ahead while we all respect the appropriate health measures,” sheadded. 

Gemechu will have a host of outstanding rivals in this year’s race, arguably the strongest  women’s field ever seen in the history of the ADHM with seven women having run under 67  minutes. 

Among them are two of her compatriots, Yalemzerf Yehualaw and Netsanet Gudeta. 

The in-form Yehualaw finished second in the ADHM 2019, just one second behind Gemechu,  and showed she’s a rising star of women’s distance running by finishing third at the World  Athletics Half Marathon Championships last month in a personal best of 65:19. Gudeta, the 2018 world half marathon champion. was eighth in Poland but helped Ethiopia to team gold. 

Both the men’s and women’s races have a first prize cheques of US$27,000 with a total prize  money purse (combined men and women) of US$233,270. 

The ADHM 2020 will be unlike any previous edition with an estimated 60 elite international and  Indian runners in action on the Delhi roads, with the traditional start and finish still in the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium. The event will follow the highest level of safety and hygiene  standards with bio-secure zones to ensure a COVID-19 free race. 

Non-elite runners of all abilities will have the chance to participate virtually from any location, running at any time between 25-29 November via the ADHM App. Details of how to download and use this app can found on the ADHM 2020 website airteldelhihalfmarathon.procam.in

Procam International Pvt. Ltd. A-262, 1st Floor, Defence Colony, New Delhi – 110024. India, Tel. +91112433 5984/85/86 Fax +911141634836

Elite fields for the Airtel Delhi Half Marathon 2020 (with personal 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 

For more information about the Airtel Delhi Half Marathon 2020, a World Athletics Gold Label  Road Race, the website of the event is: airteldelhihalfmarathon.procam.in 

* Other links 

www.facebook.com/runadhm 

twitter @runadhm 

instagram @runadhm 

https://www.youtube.com/user/procamrunning 

* Media contact: Neha Kandalgaonkar (Head – Media & Public Relations, Procam International)  neha@procam.in Tel: +91 22 2202 0284 / Fax: +91 22 2202 5112 / Mob: +91 9892194965 * The attached images are free-to-use for editorial purposes and have unrestricted media rights but  please credit: Procam International

Procam International Pvt. Ltd. A-262, 1st Floor, Defence Colony, New Delhi – 110024. India, Tel. +91112433 5984/85/86 Fax +911141634836

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