Delhi Half Marathon 2024: Olympic champions Joshua Cheptegei, Peres Jepchirchir headline elite field
Abhishek Pal and Kavita Yadav, who won the Indian elite races last year, will return to defend their Delhi Half Marathon title on October 20.
Athletics
Olympic champions Joshua Cheptegei of Uganda and Peres Jepchirchir of Kenya will headline the men’s and women’s elite fields, respectively, at the Delhi Half Marathon 2024 on Sunday, October 20.
Delhi Half Marathon 2024 is a gold-standard World Athletics Label Road Race. Started in 2005, this will be the 19th edition of the half marathon event.
Joshua is the current world record holder for both the 5000m and 10,000m. He won the gold medal in the 10,000m race at Paris 2024 with an Olympic record of 26:43.14. Joshua is also a three-time world champion in the same distance and won the gold medal in the 5,000m race at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
Cheptegei made his international debut in India at the World 10K Bengaluru 2014, finishing second.
“This country holds a special place in my heart as it’s where I made my international debut in 2014” Joshua said. “It’s been a good season for me and I am certainly looking at a course-record timing at the Delhi Half Marathon.”
Kenya’s Peres Jepchirchir, the Tokyo 2020 marathon champion and a three-time world half-marathon winner, will lead the women's field. Peres won the London Marathon in April with a world record time of 2:16:16. She also won the 2021 New York City and 2022 Boston Marathons.
Defending champions Abhishek Pal and Kavita Yadav will headline the Indian men’s and women’s elite fields, respectively.
Abhishek Pal recently won the 10,000m title at the National Open Athletics Championships in Bengaluru earlier this month. Asian Games silver medallist Kartik Kumar is also in the fray.
“I am aiming to break the national record in what will be my fifth Delhi Half Marathon,” Abhishek Pal said. “My mind is set on breaking the national record and going under 60 minutes.”
The current national record is 1:00:30 seconds, set by steeplechaser Avinash Sable. Abhishek Pal’s personal best is 1:04:07.
In the Indian women’s field, Kavita Yadav’s title will be challenged by two-time champion Sanjivani Jadhav.
Apart from the half marathon to be contested over 21.0975km as per World Athletics, the Great Delhi Run (∼4.5km), the Senior Citizens’ Run and the Champions with Disability Run (∼2.5km) will be the short-distance runs organised under the Delhi Half Marathon banner for amateur runners.