News

Paul Kirui won the 24th Bewag BERLIN HALF MARATHON of SCC-RUNNING on

april 4th, 2004 in 60.40.

25th Bewag BERLIN HALBMARATHON on april 3rd, 2005 - Germanys biggest and

fastest HALFMARATHON with 17.046 participants from 63 countries and more than

100.000 spectators watching the runners

Sunday 3 October 2004

hspace="5" vspace="5" />New Delhi - Kenya’s Paul Kirui (see image, Kirui

winning the 24th Bewag BERLIN HALFMARATHON) became the first man ever to win a

World Half Marathon title on Asian soil when he crossed the finish line in the

Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium to take gold in the 13th IAAF World Half Marathon

Championships.

After a sixty second lap of the track in the stadium, the men’s race

set off as the sun broke through the cloud cover and the temperatures started

to rise in New Delhi.

The tail end of the monsoon season had brought torrential downpours the

night before and the air was relatively clear for this city of 11 million

people, with the temperatures moderate at 25 degrees centigrade, with 80%

humidity making sure that the athletes did not have too easy a time of

it.

The early pace was set by Eritrean Yonas Kifle, who led the field through 5

kilometres in 14:48, seven seconds ahead of the rest of the leaders. The East

African teams of Eritrea, Uganda, Kenya and Ethiopia were closely bunched at

this point, with just nine seconds separating the first twenty runners at the 5

km mark.

As the leading pack of twelve runners entered the stadium after reaching

halfway in 29:66, Kenya had taken control, with Wilson Kiprotich Kebenel

heading the leaders as they circuited the track before heading off for another

lap of the course.

Paul Kirui leads the pack

At this stage, four countries were clearly in contention for the team title,

with Kenya, Uganda, Eritrea and Ethiopia all having three runners among the

leaders.

Race favourites John Cheruiyot Korir and Tanzania’s 2003 silver

medalist Fabiano Joseph ...