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Kipkemboi, Cherop headline Istanbul elite fields
Reading Time: 3min | Sun. 13.10.24. | 16:11
The favourites are in their 40's, making this a fight between youth and experience
A mix of highly experienced marathon runners with strong personal records and younger challengers could produce some fascinating races at the 46th Istanbul Marathon set for 3 November.
Ethiopia’s Abebe Negewo and Kenya's Kenneth Kipkemoi head the current start list, the former being the fastest with a personal best (PB) of 2:04:51 achieved in Valencia in 2019 when he was fourth.
Despite racing sparingly, he registered a 2:05:27 in Valencia in 2021, 2:06:05 in Hamburg in 2022 and 2:08:12 in Rotterdam last year. He is racing his first marathon this year.
On his part, Kipkemoi who turned 40 this year has posted consistently fast times in his last three races, coming home in 2:08:15 in Rotterdam in 2023 and then won the Eindhoven Marathon with a 2:04:52 PB. This year he returned to Rotterdam where he was fourth with 2:05:43.
Two Ethiopians, more than a decade younger than the duo will be among the favourites as well, led by 28-year-old Kelkile Gezahegn, who has a PB of 2:05:56. He managed to win all his first four marathons in 2016, all in China.
Dejene Debela is 29 years old and ran his PB of 2:05:46 when he was runner-up in Chicago in 2019. After a two year-break, which seems to have been injury related, he came back this year with 2:09:33 in Taiyuan, China.
In the women’s race, former World bronze medalist Sharon Cherop, now 40, is the fastest on the list with a 2:22:28 PB. She took the bronze medal at the World Championships in Daegu, South Korea, in 2011.
A year later she won Boston Marathon and in 2013 she clocked her PB of 2:22:28 when she was runner-up in Berlin. Last year she won the Milan Marathon and this spring she was second in Hannover with 2:24:41.
"I think I can run for a couple of more years,“ she said after the race in Germany.
Sentayehu Lewetegn will be among Cherop’s challengers. The Ethiopian ran a strong debut in Frankfurt in 2018 with 2:22:45 for sixth place. The 28 year-old could not improve her PB yet, but she came close in Ljubljana, two years ago when she finished second with 2:22:36.
A third force could come from Betty Kibet, an athlete likely to have an immediate impact in the classic distance as she makes her debut. The 24 year-old Kenyan has a promising 66:37 half marathon PB. She also ran the Istanbul Half Marathon this April and finished sixth with a fine 68:39.
Kibet, who was a world-class junior athlete in her early career, has a strong 10k PB of 31:08 and ran 1:21:43 in Kolkata, India, for 25k in December last year.
A total of 42,500 runners have entered the race that leads the athletes from the Asian side of the city onto the July 15 Martyrs Bridge and then into the European part of Istanbul.
“No marathon is run in a city that bears the traces of three great empires that have left a significant mark on world history. No marathon passes over a bridge that connects continents above a magnificent strait. Thanks to this unique feature, we believe that the Türkiye Is Bankasi Istanbul Marathon is the best thematic marathon in the world,” said Race Director Renay Onur
