Delhi Half Marathon 2025: Kenyans Matata, Rengeruk win elite races

Kenyan long-distance runners Alex Matata and Lilian Kasait Rengeruk stamped their authority on the capital’s streets, storming to victory in the men’s and women’s elite races respectively at the Delhi Half Marathon on Sunday.

Matata, who finished runner-up here last year, ran a perfectly-timed race to cross the line in 59:50 seconds, while Rengeruk triumphed in the women’s field with a time of 1:07:20 seconds, braving the warm and humid conditions. Both winners pocketed USD 27,000 each for their efforts.

They were greeted at the finish line by event ambassador and legendary nine-time Olympic gold medallist Carl Lewis.

Over 40,000 runners took to the streets of Delhi, participating across multiple categories, including the Half Marathon, Open 10K, Champions with Disability Run, Senior Citizens’ Run, and the Great Delhi Run.

It was a dominant display from Matata, who led for the most part of the race. He left behind Ethiopia’s Boyelign Teshager (1:00:22 seconds) and compatriot James Kipkogei (1:00:25 seconds) to seal victory.

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The 28-year-old had earlier this year won the Meishan Renshou Half Marathon, a World Athletics Platinum Label race in China, clocking 59:28 seconds.

In contrast, the women’s race went down to the wire. Multiple world cross-country medallist and pre-race favourite Rengeruk surged ahead in the final stretch to edge out Ethiopia’s Melal Siyoum Biratu (1:07:21seconds), who was competing in her first race outside her country. Ethiopian Mulat Tekle finished third with a time of 1:07:29 seconds.

Rengeruk, the reigning Prague half marathon champion, had previously clinched the Bengaluru World 10K crown in India last year.

Among the Indians, Abhishek Pal and Seema were the fastest finishers, clocking 1:04:17 seconds and 1:11:23 seconds respectively.

At one point, it seemed Pal was close to bettering his personal best time of 1:04:07 seconds he had set here in 2023, but missed the mark.

The Delhi Half Marathon, which is in its 20th edition, is a World Athletics Gold Label road race event. It has a prize purse of USD 260,000 and was flagged off from the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium.

Published on Oct 12, 2025