Obiri, Kwemoi win Istanbul Half Marathon
World Cross Country champion Hellen Obiri celebrates after crossing the finish line to win the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) senior women cross country title at the Moi Air Base on January 29, 2021.
What you need to know:
- Obiri ensured that Kenya once again won both the titles when she won the women's race in one hour, 04 minutes and 48 seconds, falling off the course record time by 46 seconds
- Kwemoi cruised past 15km in 41:34 and 20km in 56:05 before winning to break the previous record of 59:35 set by Kibiwott Kandie last year
- Kwemoi becomes the fourth Kenyan to win in Instabul after Evans Kiplagat (2015), Bernard Ng'eno (2019) and Kibiwott Kandie( 2021) while Obiri is the fifth Kenyan to claim the women's title
Kenya's Helen Obiri and Rogers Kwemoi are the new Istanbul Half Marathon champions.
Kwemoi won in a course record time of 59 minutes and 15 seconds on Sunday at the Turkish capital.
World 5,000m champion Hellen Obiri ensured that Kenya once again won both the titles when she won the women's race in one hour, 04 minutes and 48 seconds, falling off the course record time by 46 seconds.
Kwemoi went head-on with pacesetter Emmanuel Bor and Daniel Mateiko as they tore the first 5km in 13:39 and 10km in 27:35.
It was after 10km that Kwemoi broke away from the pack to build the lead from Mateiko to over 80m.
Kwemoi cruised past 15km in 41:34 and 20km in 56:05 before winning to break the previous record of 59:35 set by Kibiwott Kandie last year.
Kwemoi's winning time fell outside his personal best of 58:30. It was his maiden victory in half marathon and his third appearance too over the distance.
Mateiko finished second in 1:00:05 with Bor going all the way to settle third in 1:00:20.
It was a lonely journey for Obiri with her pacesetter David Chemweno.
She cleared the first 5km in 14:43 before going past 10km alone in 29:69 and 20km in 61:14 before winning.
But her time was far away from the course record of 1:04:02 set by World marathon champion Ruth Chepng'etich last year.
It was a great victory for Obiri, who had finished third in the race last year.
It was Obiri's fourth half marathon race.
Tsehay Gemechu and Bekelech Gudeta from Ethiopia came in second and third in 1:05:52 and 1:06:35 respectively.
Kwemoi becomes the fourth Kenyan to win in Instabul after Evans Kiplagat (2015), Bernard Ng'eno (2019) and Kibiwott Kandie( 2021) while Obiri is the fifth Kenyan to claim the women's title.
Others are Gladys Cherono (2015), Violah Jepchumba (2016) and Ruth Chepng'etich (2017, 2021).
