Delhi braces for rush hour

Vinayak Padmadeo
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, October 19

The current world record holder from Kenya, Joyciline Jepkosgei, and three-time Olympics gold medallist from Ethiopia, Tirunesh Dibaba, remained non-committal on their chances of winning the race. But the stage is set for a super Sunday showdown between two of the world’s devastating runners.

Joyciline and Tirunesh have raced twice against each other. After settling for a second-place finish in Ottawa, Tirunesh edged past Joyciline at the 10km Great Manchester Run held in May this year with a timing of 31 min, 08s. If the conditions permit, then the third showdown could be a blockbuster and the long-standing course record of 1 hr, 06:54s set by Kenya’s Mary Keitany in 2009 is likely to break.

The Kenyan, who started competing seriously in 2016, hit the headlines last year in April when she broke the record in Prague with a timing of 1 hr, 4:52s. Six months later, she bettered it by a second in Valencia. Tirunesh is coming into Sunday’s race with a creditable third-place finish at the Berlin Marathon. 

However, the 27-year-old Ethiopian ignored all talk of rivalry. “I have recovered more or less, although I wanted to run faster in Berlin. I have come to Delhi with the target of winning, I’m not thinking about time too much,” Tirunesh said with the help of an interpreter.

Joyciline, 25, did not say much about running against Tirunesh. “When I am running, I don’t see anyone. I am going on my own, only trying to replicate what I do in training. I run my own race so I hope to do my best,” she said.

Focus on improvement

She, however, gives a hint that she will try to break her own mark. “It all depends on a combination of things. How fast are the pacemakers? Confidence and weather too plays a part. So there are challenges. But if the weather is OK, we will try. As an athlete I always try to improve my time. That’s my focus,” Joyciline said. Both the athletes are coming to India for the first time. Joyciline skipped last year’s race to run in Valencia. 

Tirunesh wanted to run a half marathon after competing in Berlin. “One of my plans was to run a half marathon after Berlin, my manager told me about Delhi, and I thought it was a good idea,” Tirunesh said. 

Joyciline said, “I like to race in new countries, to learn there and make new friends, that’s the reason I have come here.”

Rawat, Gopi under-cooked? 

The Asian marathon champion Gopi T and the reigning champion in Indian elite men’s category, Nitendra Singh Rawat, are both coming to this race somewhat under-cooked. Rawat, who bettered the course record last year with the timing of 1 hr, 03.53s, has not entered in a competitive race since February this year. The race on Sunday will be Gopi’s first race of the season too. “This will be my first half marathon since 2015,” said Gopi, who now concentrates on running the full marathon. “Don’t know how I will perform on Sunday but my training is good. The field is also good so it will be a good competition,” he added. Army man Rawat will assess his fitness here before next year’s Mumbai Marathon. “My main focus is the Mumbai Marathon. I will race in one or more events before it. I will look to improve on my shortcomings from this race,” Rawat said. “My preparation is good, my body weight is alright but the only thing is that I have not run a competitive race since February,” he added.