Liesa, Kabuu take Delhi Half Marathon honours

Zeenews Sports Bureau

New Delhi: Ethiopia`s Seyisa Lilesa won the seventh edition of Delhi Half Marathon in men`s elite section with a timing of 59:29 minutes on Sunday. In the women's event, Kabuu led a Kenyan sweep, winning the race in one hour, seven minutes and four seconds with her compatriot Sharon Cherop clocking 1:07:08s to settle for silver. Desisa ran for 59 minutes and 30 secs to cover 21.097 km to pocket USD 25,000 winner's purse. Suresh Kumar (1:04:06) finished first among Indian men, overall 20th in the race followed by Kheta Ram (1:04:43) and V L Dangi (1:05:01), who came second and third respectively. In women’s section, Lalita Babbar successfully defended her title clocking 1:17:37, followed by Kiran Tiwari (1:17:58) and Swati Gadhave (1:20:55). The main event, the 21.097-km Half Marathon was held first which was followed by a 2.5-km Wheelchair Race, a 4.3-km run for senior citizens and the 6-km Great Delhi Run. The marathon was flagged off by Bollywood stars Shahrukh Khan and Bipasha Basu along with Sports Minister Ajay Maken. The women’s field sported a strong line-up that included the likes of defending champion Aselefech, previous year`s runner-up Merima Mohammed along with former World Half Marathon silver medallist Aberu Kebede. With PTI inputs