World medallist Ebenyo, Rio champion Ayana to headline Delhi half marathon

In Ebenyo and Ayana, the 18th edition of the race which has had winners including marathon world record holder and two-time Olympic marathon champion Eliud Kipchoge has two competitors who will be expected to push for fast timings.

Daniel Ebenyo will be participating in the Delhi half marathon. | Photo Credit: Reuters

2023 World silver medalist in the 10000m Daniel Ebenyo and Rio Olympic champion over the same distance for women Almaz Ayana will be favourites at the 2023 Vedanta Delhi half marathon that will take place on October 15th. The duo’s participation was announced at a press conference in New Delhi on Wednesday

In Ebenyo and Ayana, the 18th edition of the race which has had winners including marathon world record holder and two-time Olympic marathon champion Eliud Kipchoge has two competitors who will be expected to push for fast timings.

Ebenyo, 28, will be competing in his second half marathon of the season and first since he placed second over the 10000m at the Budapest World Championships. He comes in with a season-best of 59.52 but will be hoping to get close to his personal best of 59.04 which he recorded in December last year.

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Ebenyo will be particularly confident. After two relatively poor years in which he finished 10th at the Olympics and then sixth at the Worlds in Eugene in the 5000m, Ebenyo has been racing longer distances more recently.

The change has been for the better since he is having one of his best seasons in his international career, that was punctuated by a silver medal at Budapest – his first medal at the Worlds.

While Ebenyo will be looking to win his first title in New Delhi, Ayana, the Rio gold medalist in the 10000m and a two-time world champion – in the 5000m in 2015 and then the 10000m in 2017, will be gearing up for her second title.

The now-31-year-old had earlier won the Delhi half marathon in 2017. That race was, of course, among the last before a three-year break in which she became a mother and also battled injuries.

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Ayana, though, has returned strongly. In October 2022, she ran the fastest-ever woman’s marathon debut with a time of 2.17.20 in Amsterdam. She has been impressive this season, too. She has the fifth-best time this season, running 1.05.30 in Lisboa, and will be looking to make a mark in what will be only her second half marathon of the season in New Delhi.