RAS AL KHAIMAH HALF MARATHON ON SATURDAY: New regime, new course, but Olympic Champion Peres Jepchirchir returns

The quickest half marathon on the earth is simply 48 hours away. Particular due to #VisitRasAlKhaimah, the Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Growth Authority, for supporting the occasion and the distinctive presser held right this moment.

Look ahead to a number of upcoming tales right this moment!

This launch is from Race-Information-Service, one in every of our companions in world athletics and working protection. Particular due to Joerg Wenig.

RAS AL KHAIMAH HALF MARATHON ON SATURDAY:

New regime, new course, however Olympic Champion Peres Jepchirchir returns.

New regime, new course, however with Olympic and world champions and the same old array of speedsters, Saturday’s Ras Al Khaimah Half Marathon is nearly assured of the type of quick occasions which were a function of the occasion all through its 17-year historical past, together with three girls’s world data.

Satisfaction of place each on the beginning checklist and at this morning’s press convention in one of many smaller emirates within the UAE had been Olympic marathon and three-time world half-marathon champion Peres Jepchirchir of Kenya and retaining the steadiness within the long-term East African distance working rivalry, world marathon champion Tamirat Tola of Ethiopia heads the lads’s entry. The wild card, hoping to gatecrash the occasion, is Konstanze Klosterhalfen of Germany, who shocked the East Africans when she beat a dozen of them to win her debut half-marathon in Valencia in 2022.

Jepchirchir might neither be the quickest marathoner nor half-marathoner amongst present girls long-distance runners. Nonetheless, she is aware of how one can win races, an asset much more beneficial than quick occasions. Within the seven months between late August 2021 and mid-April 2022, she received the Olympic, New York, and Boston Marathons, a uncommon collective achievement. In her comeback marathon following an harm, she completed third in final yr’s London Marathon. And he or she has received 12 of her 16 half-marathons. She is loath to confess her plans but, however this RAK ‘half’ is completely scheduled as a springboard to going again to London in April to improve that third place.

Koko Klosterholfen, Peres Jepchrichir, Tamirat Tola, 2024 RAK Half Marathon, picture by Giancarlo COLUMBO

Tola was equally aggravated that an harm (abdomen misery) prevented him from efficiently defending his 2022 world marathon title in Budapest final summer time. Nonetheless, a speedy restoration noticed him break the long-standing New York Marathon document with 2.04.58 three months later. He is among the few elites to be making his debut within the RAK ‘half’, and the dimensions of his activity could also be judged by the truth that on paper, there are 15 males quicker than his better of 59.37 set seven years in the past in Prague. However he prompt that’s due for drastic revision. ‘I’d wish to assume I can do underneath 59 minutes if the race seems to be quick,’ he stated on the press convention. The quickest man within the area is Daniel Mateiko of Kenya, who scored 58.26, however his colleague Benard(sic) Kibet has the benefit of getting received final yr with 58.45.

Klosterhalfen, ‘Koko’ to her friends, might show to be not solely the wild card however the joker within the pack within the girls’s race. A world bronze medallist on the observe and European 5000 meters champion, the German referred to as a halt to her summer time season final yr when a foot harm precipitated her to reassess her profession. She had already modified her shoe sponsor and left her coach and long-term coaching venue within the USA. She then switched once more and teamed up with Gary Lough, a latter-day coach to Mo Farah and the partner of former world document holder Paula Radcliffe (right here in RAK as a TV commentator). Klosterhalfen has additionally switched her altitude coaching venue to Addis Ababa, the place she has simply spent six weeks, coming instantly right here. ‘Highway working continues to be a little bit of an journey for me’, she stated this morning. ‘I nonetheless need to run on the observe, however I need to do extra highway races’.

The roll-call of winners for the reason that race started in 2007 is a ‘Who’s Who’ of distance working over the past 20 years, starting with Sammy Wanjiru and Berhane Adere within the inaugural race, by way of luminaries akin to Patrick Makau, Geoffrey Mutai, Elvan Abeylegesse, Mary Keitany, Geoffrey Kamworor, Lelisa Desisa, Samson Kandie and Hellen Obiri. As well as, Jepchirchir received in 2017 with a world document of 65min 06sec.

The promoters of the profitable marathon down the highway in Dubai have been invited this yr to present the RAK ‘half’ a makeover, they usually started by introducing a 10k race for locals and altering the half-marathon course. ‘It’s quicker and higher than any route earlier than right here in Ras Al Khaimah; we’ve reduce out a number of the sharp turns,’ stated race director Peter Connerton, ‘so we’re hoping for a minimum of related occasions and hopefully higher. However with a few good races into the cut price’.

MAIN CONTENDERS IN RAK

MEN

Daniel MateikoKEN58:26

Kennedy KimutaiKEN58:28

Seifu TuraETH58:36

Amdework Walelegn ETH 58:40

Benard Kibet KoechKEN58:45

Alex Korio KEN 58:51

Birhanu Legese ETH 58:59

Haftu Teklu ETH 59:06

Tamirat TolaETH59:37

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