Bedan Karoki leads Kenyan charge at Copenhagen Half Marathon
World Half Marathon silver medallist Bedan Karoki (right) and World Half Marathon champion Geoffrey Kamworor during a training session at University of Eldoret grounds on July 19, 2016 ahead the Olympic Games. PHOTO | JARED NYATAYA |
What you need to know:
- It will be Karoki’s first race since finishing seventh in 10,000m at the Rio Olympic Games.
- World Half Marathon Championships held in Copenhagen in 2014 and the 2015 Copenhagen Half Marathon in 2015 were won in record times.
Defending champion Bedan Karoki is among a horde of elite Kenyan athletes out to lower the six-year World Record at the Copenhagen Half Marathon on Sunday in Denmark.
It will be Karoki’s first race since finishing seventh in 10,000m at the Rio Olympic Games.
Karoki, who is the World Half Marathon and World Cross Country silver medallist, leads this year’s strong field in pursuit of the World Record of 58:23 set by the Eritrean Zersenay Tadese in Lisbon on March 21, 2010.
World Half Marathon Championships held in Copenhagen in 2014 and the 2015 Copenhagen Half Marathon in 2015 were won in record times.
Kenya’s Geoffrey Kamworor won the 2014 World Half Marathon in a Championship Record time of 59:08 before Karoki, 26, swept to victory in Copenhagen last year in a personal best of 59.14, only 51 seconds short of the World Record.
In March this year, Karoki won silver at the World Half Marathon in Cardiff after losing the battle to Kamworor who defended his title.
“I have put behind the Olympics woes having fully recovered from a hamstring injury that impeded a good performance in Rio,” said Karoki, who is based in Japan.
Other Kenyans tipped to challenge Karoki for the title are Stephen Kosgei (58.54), James Wangari (59.12), Leonard Komon (59.14), Sammy Kitwara (59.47) and Matthew Kisorio (59.52).
Kenyan-born Abraham Cheroben of Bahrain and Ethiopians Yigrem Demelash, Mosinet Geremew and Berhanu Legesse will be eying to halt the Kenyan dominance in the race.
Kosgei, 29, who has the best time in the field set in 2012 at The Hague, finished fifth at the 2012 World Half Marathon. He has a season best of 1:00:33 from The Hague in March.
Wangari, 22, will be going for his second half marathon after his debut in March in Milan, a race he won in 59.12 minutes. Only one runner has done a faster time this season.
Komon, 28, who holds both the 10km (26:44) and 15km (41:13) world records, should bring a new twist into the race with his experience alongside Kitwara, who won the Lisbon Half Marathon in March in 59.47 minutes.
Kitwara’s biggest feat was his second place at the 2014 Chicago Marathon where he clocked 2:04:28.
Demelash, who finished fourth in the Olympic 10,000m in Rio, tried the half marathon out for the first time in Milan and finished second by five seconds behind Wangari in 59.49 minutes.
Kenya’s Gladys Chesir, who finished sixth at the 2016 World Half Marathon, leads the women’s elite field with a personal best of 66.57. Kenya’s Purity Rionoripo won last year’s race in 1:08:29 beating Ethiopian Sutume Asefa (1:08:47) and fellow Kenyan Lucy Kabuu (1:08:51).
