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After the
deluge
IAAF World Half Marathon
Championships, New Delhi, India.
3 October 2004
The World Half Marathon
Championships ventured into
Asia for the first time, and met
with a whirlwind reception.
The night before the race a
dramatic lightning storm and
torrential downpour damped
down both the official
celebrations and the air
temperature and pollution.
Next morning, with race
furniture hurriedly restored into
position, athletes confronted a
seasonally mild 25°C, although
humidity had risen to 80%.
The races started and finished
in the Jaharwarlal Nehru Stadium.
Runners did a lap of the track to
start with, before completing a
5km out-and-back route which
extended northward to a point
just beyond the monumental
India Gate.
After retracing this route to the
stadium runners completed
another lap around the stadium
track, mid-race. They then headed
out for a second tour of the road
circuit before returning to the
stadium for a final lap of the track.
Kirui’s
confident canter
Paul Kirui fulfilled his own
supremely confident expectations
of himself by piling on the pace
after the turning point on the
second lap, to finish 100m clear of
his nearest challenger.
The race had started
ambitiously, with a 60-second lap.
Yonas Kifle of Eritrea emerged
once out on the roads to head the
field by a margin of seven seconds
at 5km, which he passed in 14:48.
Behind him, as they took the turn
for the first time, a group of 25
runners were within about 20m of
road length.
Low cloud had not prevented
TV helicopters from getting
airborne, although security
precautions surrounding a visit
from the Indian Prime Minister
had nearly achieved this. Some of
the athletes may have regretted
that it hadn’t, as the down
draught from the helicopters’
rotor blades was clearly causing
problems for some of them. It
also had the unwelcome effect of
DISTANCE RUNNING
sending the lightweight course
marking cones skittering all over
the road junctions.
A dozen runners were still
together on entering the stadium,
after passing through 10km in
29:55. Another six were starting to
trail off behind, although there
had been no obvious attempt to
force the pace at the front. Kirui
was biding his time.
Although he later dismissed the
credentials of Fabiano Joseph, last
year’s silver medallist, he
admitted to being wary of the
challenge from Abdullah Ahmed
Hassan of Qatar - formerly Albert
Chepkurui, of Kenya.
As they approached India Gate
for the second time, Kirui made
his break. He gradually put
distance between himself and his
closest challengers, although
Fabiano Joseph later claimed that
he had entertained hopes of
closing him down until they had
passed 16km. To any observer that
never looked likely, as Korir had
the roads to himself.
Out on his own, there were few
spectators to keep him company
either. This part of New Delhi,
although telegenically tree-lined,
is sparsely built up with wellguarded
diplomatic and
ministerial compounds. Those
spectators who travelled to watch
the race headed for the stadium
itself, rather than the roads on
which it was run.
They were there to watch Kirui
enter the stadium with arms aloft
to acknowledge the crowd’s
acclaim. He cruised around the
final lap 100m ahead of Joseph,
who held on ahead of Hassan and
Kirui’s team-mate, John Cheruiyot
Korir. Two Ethiopians followed
closely, to make the Kenyan team
victory narrower than it appeared
at any time during the race.
January - March 2005
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