Delhi Half-Marathon 2023: Favourites Daniel Ebenyo, Almaz Ayana secure top honours | More sports News

NEW DELHI: Daniel Ebenyo is a soft-spoken person. It’s very difficult to get words out of him. He usually replies in monosyllables. Instead, Ebenyo lets his performance do all the talking. Whatever the conditions, Ebenyo, while running, is a colossus on the course.
At the beginning of the month, the 28-year-old Kenyan had clinched silver at the World Half Marathon Championships in Riga, Latvia. The competition in Latvia was much tougher, and it was more of a given that he would win the World Athletics Gold Label Road Race at the 2023 Vedanta Delhi Half Marathon (VDHM) on Sunday.
Ebenyo lived up to the top billing and won the race in 59 minutes: 27 seconds, staving off competition from countrymate Charles Matata, who was nearly a minute slower (60.05). Addisu Gobena of Ethiopia came third, clocking 60:51. Defending champion Chala Regasa of Ethiopia left the race midway.

Interestingly, among the top-9 elite international runners in the men’s category, eight were Kenyans – the exception being Ethiopian Gobena.
Ebenyo, however, was disappointed with the ‘pacers’ of the race and thought he could’ve broken the course record (58:53 by Ethiopia’s Amedework Walelegn in 2020) had the pacers not been slow during the initial stages of the race.
“It was amazing to run in Delhi. However, I am disappointed with my timing. I was aiming for the event record but fell short. But, nevertheless, it was a fantastic experience. Hopefully, I will be able to break the event record next year,” Ebenyo, who often trains with the legendary Eluid Kpochoge back in Kenya, said.
“The pacers were not fast enough. They were especially slow in the first 5 kms, otherwise I could have broken the record,” he rued.
Ebenyo has been in red-hot form over the last two years. Besides the World Half Marathon silver, he won the 10,000m silver at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary. He had also bagged the 10,000m silver at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham last year.

The elite international women’s race was won by Rio Olympics champion in 10,000m, Almaz Ayana of Ethiopia. Ayana, a winner at the Delhi Half Marathon six years back, won by clocking 1:07.58 – 30 seconds ahead of Uganda’s Stella Chesang (1:08:28). For Chesang, it was one place up from her last year’s finish in Delhi. Kenya’s Viola
Chepngeno completed the podium, coming home in 1:09:09.
Ayana, just like Ebenyo, pulled away from the pack after the first 5 kms and then just kept on increasing the lead.
“It was not an easy race and the weather was a bit hot as well. But I am quite happy about winning here (in Delhi),” Ayana said.
The 31-year-old Ayana was out of action for nearly five years as she underwent surgery on both knees. In between, she also became a mother. Ayana started competing again from April last year, and made the fastest ever women’s marathon debut at the 2022 Amsterdam Marathon in October.
She won the race and beat the course record by almost 40 seconds.