Cheptegei shines in Vedanta Delhi Half Marathon, sets sight on conquering the road

Olympian Joshua Cheptegei lived up to his billing to take home the men’s crown in Sunday’s Vedanta Delhi Half Marathon, a World Athletics Gold Label Road Race, at the Indian capital.

Kenya’s Alex Matata (27) led a major part of the race with his teammate Nicholas Kipkorir, who ran his maiden half marathon internationally. Kipkorir was a bronze medalist in the 5 km World Championships last year.

Matata was unbeaten in all three races he took part in in Europe earlier this year, with two sub-60 minutes clocking in two of them. That made the race exciting, and everyone was looking for a fast finish timing from the men’s winner.

Matata keeps the lead until the runners turn toward the finish line in the Jawahar Lal Nehru Stadium, where the race commenced less than an hour earlier to decide the 2024 title.

Cheptegei, running seconds behind the Kenyan, realized the now-or-never situation and came from behind to snatch the lead from Matata to win in 59 minutes 46 seconds. Matata (59:53) and Kipkorir (59:59) complete the podium with the Ugandan.

Incidentally, the Vedanta Delhi half marathon was one of the fastest races in the World and usually saw incredible timings by the participants. Ethiopian Deriba Merga was the first to post a sub-60-minute winning time in 2008 when all the podium finishers dipped under 1 hour.

This action was repeated several times in some of the subsequent editions at Delhi, wherein 2014 witnessed a record number of nine runners finishing within 60 minutes.

Former world champion Muktar Edris from Ethiopia, another pre-race favourite, finished fifth (60:52), while Tanzania’s Alphonce Simbu (60:40) got the fourth place.

Cheptegei, with multiple world titles on his cap, said that ‘this win in Delhi was special to me because it is my first-ever victory in a Half Marathon.’

‘India has been important for my career, and this country now means a lot to me. I felt good throughout the race despite the slow start. My first aim was to catch up with Nicholas (Kipkorir) and then Alex (Matata) in the final few kilometers of the race. I am delighted with my performance and hope to continue in the same manner in the future races’.

‘Thank you, Vedanta Delhi Half, for a wonderful race. This has been a special race that tested my mind. Initially, I felt some problems in my feet around 16-17 km, but I decided to push and catch up with Nicholas, and then for about two kilometers, we pushed each other.

‘I took it slow because I didn’t want to burn out, and I wanted to finish strong. Now I go back home with a feeling to conquer the roads’, he further revealed.