Joshua Cheptegei vs Mukhtar Edris in Half Marathon. Very exciting clash. I haven't seen Edris race recently so i guess Cheptegei is clear favourite. But you never know, remember 2017?
Course record is 58:53, which was set back in 2020.
Fun fact: In 2020 edition 3 runners were able to dip under 59min.
Edris handily beat Cheptegei at the Dam tot Damloop 10miler last month so I think Cheptegei will have a tough battle with him again this time.
Two others I think have a decent chance to win here - Nicholas Kipkorir who closed the track season with 12:49 then a few weeks ago was 2nd to Vincent Langat at the Kericho XC in Kenya + Alex Matata who is 3/3 this year winning HMs and running sub-60 twice. Then Dinkalem Ayele can't be discounted
Edris won the last race but perhaps cheptegei just started training after Olympics for the other race. Will be interesting to see - for someone with his track credentials he sure hasn’t dominated the roads
Don’t really understand why Cheptegai quit the track when he was still winning and hasn’t really translated well to the roads. Surely he was making enough money on the track…
Don’t really understand why Cheptegai quit the track when he was still winning and hasn’t really translated well to the roads. Surely he was making enough money on the track…
Never mind - he ended up winning. Looked totally out of it when I posted this.
In all seriousness this is Cheptegei’s best long effort by a big margin. It was 70+ and humid with crappy air apparently. Probably slowed everyone by nearly a minute. Still not great he’s getting dropped at 58-mid effort levels but a strong performance compared to his other underwhelming road stuff over 10K
