Airtel Delhi Half Marathon-2015 – Lalita Babar ran Indian Best HM to pockets the Jackpot! – By Ram. Murali Krishnan

New Delhi, India – 29 November 2015: – Asian steeplechase champion Lalita Babar overwhelmed her training partner and national marathon record-holder O.P. Jaisha to conquer the Indian section of Airtel Delhi Half Marathon with an incredible Indian best time of 1 hour 10 minutes 52 seconds for the 21.1 Km race!

The ace runner from Maharashtra thus erased the previous Indian best of 1:12:50 held by her predecessor Kavita Tungar (-Raut), also hails from the same state, since 2009 edition of the Pune marathon. Although only very few road running enthusiasts realised her extraordinary feat at the Indian capital this morning, most of the fellow Indian runners noticed Lalita eclipsed

Kavita's 2008 course record (1:17:12) in more than six minutes!

For what she accomplished today, Lalita received a course record Jackpot of INR 175,000 over and above her winner's cheque for INR 300,000/-.

In the next two places O.P. Jaisha (1:11:34) and Sudha Singh (1:11:46) also bettered the previous Indian best for the above distance.

In the men section Nitender Singh Rawat clocked a personal best 1:04:41 to win in a tight-finish from compatriots T Gopi (1:04:45) and Mohd Yunus (1:04:46).

25-year-old Cynthia Limo led a Kenyan medal sweep in the elite women's race by beating teammate and Beijing world championship Marathon silver medalist Helah Kiprop at the tape. The duo clocked an identical 1:08:35 while Gladys Chesir completes the podium just 1 second later.

Ethiopian Birhanu Legase (21) clinched the men's crown in 59:20 – that was only the fourth fastest winning time in Delhi! Teammate Mosinet, a World championship 10,000m finalist at Beijing earlier this year, was just a fraction of second behind in second place. Eritrean Zersenay Tadese, winner of multiple World titles and medals at various distances and ran a world record 58:23 five years ago, finished third here in 59:26.

The winners received their prizes from three times Olympic champion and Event Ambassador Kenenisa Bekele of Ethiopia!

Ram. Murali Krishnan