{"id":542,"date":"2018-10-22T17:53:23","date_gmt":"2018-10-22T17:53:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/gn\/?p=542"},"modified":"2018-10-22T18:11:12","modified_gmt":"2018-10-22T18:11:12","slug":"tsehay-gemechu-surprise-delhi-half-marathon-winner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/gn\/news\/tsehay-gemechu-surprise-delhi-half-marathon-winner","title":{"rendered":"Tsehay Gemechu surprise Delhi Half Marathon winner"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Tsehay<\/a><\/p>\n

Delhi, 21 October 2018: The pre-race publicity for the Airtel Delhi Half Marathon 2018 focussed on a duel between Ethiopia\u2019s Tirunesh Dibaba and Kenya\u2019s Joyciline Jepkosgogei, quite rightly considering their careers and 2018 racing records, but Dibaba\u2019s compatriot Tsehay Gemechu hadn\u2019t read the script and flew to a course record of 1:06:50 on Sunday. <\/p>\n

Debutante Gemechu sets Airtel Delhi Half Marathon women\u2019s course record<\/h3>\n

Gemechu, running her first half marathon, took four seconds off the nine-year-old previous record for the IAAF Gold Label Road Race, set by Kenya\u2019s Mary Keitany in 2009, to take the USD$27,000 first prize in the richest half marathon in the world.<\/p>\n

In a race full of drama and surprises, the 20-year-old Ethiopian outsprinted the world record holder Jepkosgei in the final few hundred metres, the latter taking second place in 1:06:56, with Ethiopia\u2019s Zeineba Yimer running a strong final five kilometres to take third in 1:06:59.<\/p>\n

The first shock was the sight of the three-time Olympic champion Dibaba visibly starting to struggle as early as the 5km mark, clinging on to the back of the women\u2019s leading group. She was still hanging on at 10km as a pack of eight, assisted by male pacemaker Timothy Kutto, went through that checkpoint in 31:42 but she soon became detached and ceased to be a factor in the women\u2019s race.<\/p>\n

Four women \u2013 Gemechu, Jepkosgei, Kenya\u2019s Stacy Ndiwa and Ethiopia\u2019s Senbere Teferi \u2013 followed Kutto through 15km in 47:51 but Teferi, another half marathon debutante, decided to take off shortly afterwards.<\/p>\n

At 19km, Teferi had a 12-second advantage over the chasing pair of Gemechu and Jepkosgei who seemingly were battling for second place. However, with little more than one kilometre to go, Teferi started to slow dramatic and was soon barely raising her gait above walking pace.<\/p>\n

Teferi drifted to the side of the road and with about 700 metres to almost came to a halt as Gemechu and Jepkosgei sped past her before dropping out due to dehydration, although she recovered quickly after getting treatment.<\/p>\n

Gemechu then showed her speed honed over three quick and high quality 10km races earlier in the year and shook off the world record holder for 10km and the half marathon as the finish line in the Jawahrlal Nehru Stadium approached.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be honest, I hadn\u2019t changed my training to do this race so I\u2019m surprised that I won and ran so fast,\u201d said the beaming Gemechu. \u201cWhen we went past Teferi, I actually thought it was a tactic, that she was slowing and was going to run with us before sprinting,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Jepkosgei confessed that she had not even noticed Teferi as she went past her, focussing on her immediate Ethiopian rival Gemechu and thinking that they were battling for second place. \u201cI was just focusing on my own race and I didn\u2019t notice her (Teferi),\u201d said the Kenyan. \u201cI may not have won but I\u2019m happy with my race and the time,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Andamlak Belihu and Amdework Walelegn go 1-2 for Ethiopia in the men\u2019s race<\/strong><\/p>\n

Preceding his compatriot across the line, Andamlak Belihu started the Ethiopian success story in the Indian capital on Sunday with an assured run over the final third of the race, having pushed the pace from just after the halfway point.<\/p>\n

At 15km, passed in 42:41, four men were together \u2013 Belihu and his fellow Ethiopian Amdework Walelegn, Kenya\u2019s Daniel Kipchumba and Eritrea\u2019s Aron Kifle \u2013 but soon Belihu pushed again and only Walelegn could follow him.<\/p>\n

The two 19-year-olds stayed together, although Belihu always looked the more comfortable and confident, until the final 250 metres when the eventual winner turned the screw again and crossed the line in 59:18 with Walelegn finishing four seconds behind him in 59:22.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter finishing second last year, I came here determined to win and I was looking at the course record (59:06 by Ethiopia\u2019s Guye Adola in 2014) but the pacemakers in the first half of the race didn\u2019t do a good job,\u201d said Belihu, despite the fact that the leaders were taken through 10km in 28:01.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs for next year, I\u2019m not going to move up to the marathon just yet. I have the World Cross Country<\/a> Championships and 10,000m on the track at the world championships next summer as my targets,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Kipchumba and Kifle also broke the hour in Delhi with 59:48 and 59:50 in third and fourth respectively, to emphasise the depth and quality of the race and potential for running quick times on the course.<\/p>\n

Leading times:<\/p>\n

Men 1. Andamlak Belihu (ETH) 59:18 2. Amdework Walelegn (ETH) 59:22 3. Daniel Kipchumba (KEN) 59:48 4. Aron Kifle (ERI) 59:50 5. Aweke Ayalew (BRN) 1:00:09 6. Leonard Korir (USA) 1:00:12 7. Abdallah Mande (UGA) 1:00:34 8. Betesfa Getahun (ETH) 1:00:47 9. Emmanuel Bett (KEN) 1:00:48 10. Alfred Ngeno (KEN) 1:04:07<\/p>\n

Women 1. Tsehay Gemechu (ETH) 1:06:50 2. Joyciline Jepkosgei (KEN) 1:06:56 3. Zeineba Yimer (ETH) 1:06:59 4. Stacy Ndiwa (KEN) 1:07:15 5. Ababel Yeshaneh (ETH) 1:07:49 6. Tirunesh Dibaba (ETH) 1:08:36 7. Worknesh Degefa (ETH) 1:11:04 8. Tejitu Daba (BRN) 1:12:49 9. Failuna Matanga (TAN) 1:12:51 10. Sanijvani Jadhav (IND) 1:13:58<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Delhi, 21 October 2018: The pre-race publicity for the Airtel Delhi Half Marathon 2018 focussed on a duel between Ethiopia\u2019s Tirunesh Dibaba and Kenya\u2019s Joyciline Jepkosgogei, quite rightly considering their careers and 2018 racing records, but Dibaba\u2019s compatriot Tsehay Gemechu hadn\u2019t read the script and flew to a course record of 1:06:50 on Sunday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":543,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[102,27,7,106,234,1],"tags":[251,256,235,227,255],"class_list":["post-542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ethiopia","category-events","category-featured","category-half","category-india","category-news","tag-251","tag-andamlak-belihu","tag-delhi-half-marathon","tag-ethiopia","tag-tsehay-gemechu"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/gn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/gn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/gn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/gn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/gn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=542"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/gn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":545,"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/gn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542\/revisions\/545"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/gn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/gn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/gn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/gn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}