Olympics champ Ayana bags gold

New Delhi, November 19 

Ethiopia’s Almaz Ayana, 2016’s female world athlete of the year, clinched the gold medal in the Delhi Half Marathon today as thousands of Delhiites turned up despite concerns about air pollution. Ayana’s compatriot Berhanu Legese won the men’s event.

Ayana, who set the 10,000m world record while winning the gold in the Rio Olympics, clocked one hour, seven minutes and 11 seconds to emerge as the champion in her maiden half marathon. Ethiopians ran away with all the medals as Ababel Yeshaneh and Netsanet Gudeta were second and third in the elite women’s race, clocking 1:07:19 and 1:07:24, respectively, to cover the 21.097km distance. Defending champion Worknesh Degefa was fifth in 1:08:09.

In the men’s elite race, 2015 winner Legese bagged the gold in 59 minutes, 46 seconds, while Ethiopia’s Anadamlak Belihu was second in 59:51. USA’s Leonard Korir was third in 59:52. Reigning world marathon champion Geoffrey Kirui of Kenya finished sixth.

Suriya, Rawat Indian winners

Among the Indian women, L Suriya bagged the gold in a course record (for Indians) of 1:10:31, while veteran long distance runner Sudha Singh and Parul Choudhary were second and third in 1:11:30 and 1:13:09, respectively.

Nitendra Singh Rawat won the Indian men’s race, clocking a new course record time of 1:03:53 in a dramatic photo finish with G Lakshmanan, who also clocked 1:03:53 but got the silver when the timings were broken down to decimal seconds. It was a sprint finish, with Rawat edging out Lakshmanan to the post. In fact, in the tussle for the top position, Lakshmanan fell at the finish and had some bruises on his shoulder. Avinash Sable was third in 1:03:58. The top four men bettered the course record of 1:04:00.

Meanwhile, tens of thousands of runners braved the chilly weather — around 15°C when the men’s elite race started at 6:40am — and turned up on Delhi’s roads despite the health warnings just a few days ago.

Rawat fires salvo at AFI

Meanwhile, Rawat said that his win proved a point to the Athletics Federation of India (AFI), which did not include him in the national camp. 

“I came here to prove a point. I am not being considered for the national camp and am training alone in Ranikhet at my Army unit,” he said. “Today, I have proved a point that I am fit and am still a top distance runner in the country.”

The 31-year-old was one of the Indian trio that took part in the Rio Olympics but he finished 84th. “I have not been given any reason why I was not called for the national camp. It is tough to train alone,” he added.

AFI secretary CK Valson said that Rawat’s performance was not up to the mark over the last year and that’s why he was left out of the national camp. — PTI