Olympics king Kipchoge aims at Half Marathon PB in India

Kenya’s 2016 Olympic Games marathon champion Eliud Kipchoge made it clear that his target at the Airtel Delhi Half Marathon on Sunday will be nothing less than an improvement on his five- year-old personal best over the distance.

“The aim is to better my own (personal) record as I treat myself as my biggest competitor. The course here is really flat and it will help in maintaining good speed and producing a good time. I want to go below 59 minutes,” said Kipchoge at a press conference in the Indian city on Thursday.

“Although it is a bit hot during the day here, it is quite cool early in the morning and that will be ideal for running,” he added.

The elite men’s race will start at 0640 local time in Delhi (0410am local time) with the gun going for the elite women 10 minutes later.

In Delhi, Kipchoge will be having his first competitive outing since winning in Rio where he became, coincidently the 1000th Olympic athletics gold medallist in history.

The important statistics Kipchoge will be trying to improve on in Delhi are: the Airtel Delhi Half

Marathon course record of 59:06, set by Ethiopia’s Guye Adola in 2014; Kipchoge’s personal best of 59:25, which dates from 2012; and the 2016 world-leading mark of 58:44, which Kenya’s Solomon Yego ran at the Rome-Ostia half marathon in Italy.

Kipchoge is the fastest man in the field but he is taking nothing for granted, especially as Ethiopia’s Yigrem Demelash will be lining up alongside him.

Demelash, the 2012 world junior 10,000m champion, just missed out on a medal in Rio when he finished fourth in the 10,000m and can boast of a half marathon best of 59:49 set earlier this year.

“Ethiopian athletes are really tough competitors and many of them have run in India before, which also gives them an edge. But the Kenyans are no less strong and come Sunday, we are sure of giving a run for their money,” commented Kipchoge.

Kipchoge is no stranger to Delhi, having won the 2010 Commonwealth Games 5000m silver medal.

“I felt familiar coming here to India, perhaps it may be because of the weather conditions. This is my first race after Rio and the decision to compete in India was also to inspire millions of Indians to take up road racing as a potential career.”

There have been 12,844 entries accepted for the 2016 Airtel Delhi Half Marathon and 19,972 entries for the associated Great Delhi Run over 6km.

Kipchoge and the rest of the elite runners will be chasing men’s and women’s first prizes of US$27,00000 (Ksh2.7m), with a total prize fund of US$270,000.

-Report by organisers for  Citizen Digital