Rwanda's Diudone Disi and Ethiopian Deriba Alemu ended Kenyan dominance by clinching the men's and women's titles respectively.
NEW DELHI: Rwanda's Diudone Disi and Ethiopian Deriba Alemu ended Kenyan dominance by clinching the men's and women's titles respectively while also creating new course records at the third Vodafone Half Marathon here on Sunday.
World number six Disi clocked 60:43 (one hour and 43 seconds) while Alemu, ranked 10th in the world, took 1 hour 10 minutes and 30 seconds to travel the distance of 21 km.
Disi took home the winner's purse of USD 20,000 while Alemu will be richer by USD 18,500.
Kenya's Isaac Macharia (60:47) and Tanzania's Dixon Marwah (62:02) followed Disi on second and third spots.
The Kenyan duo of Patrick Mbuvi and Wilson Kiprotich, who is the world number three and was one of the pre-race favourites, finished fourth and fifth respectively in a photo finish after both clocked 62:03.
Alemu, meanwhile, was succeeded by compatriot Atsede Habtambu, who clocked 1:10:36. Kenya's Kenya's Alice Timbill came third with a timing of 1:10:40.
The Indians in the fray also improved their performance with last year's top finisher Ram Singh Yadav once again being the local champion ending 16th this time.
Yadav clocked 1:06:09 to finish a rung ahead of Deep Chand, who missed out on becoming the Indian champion by just a second to end 17th. Mukesh Kumar was the Indian third with a timing of 1:06:12. Mukesh finished 18th overall.
Kavita Raut was the new Indian women's champion as last year's champion Pampa Chanda failed to even make the top-20. Kavita finished 15th overall with a timing of 1:18:34.
Disi and Macharia were going neck and neck before the Rwandan sprinted off in the final kilometre to emerge the clear winner.
Macahria said he was happy to finish the race as runner-up as he was not even in a very good position when it started.
"I was not even in the leading group in the initial stage. But the course was so fantastic and the weather was fine. Before the race I thought I would run it in 59 minutes but unfortunately I couldn't do that," Macharia said.
The women's race was also a close affair until the final 200 meters, when Alemu left her compatriot Habtambu behind.
"I came here for the first time and its been a great experience. The crowd support was fantastic," Alemu said.
Habtambu, a fifth-place finisher at the World Half Marathon Championship, said, "the climate here is great and the atmosphere is also good. I enjoyed my experience in India."
Yadav said the new route suited the Indians and helped them better their previous year's timing.
"We had prepared better this time and though the route was almost similar to the previous one, it was easier to run," he said.
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