Birhanu Legese and Irine Cheptai head the elite fields for the 21st Vedanta Delhi Half Marathon on Sunday 18 October. The World Athletics Gold Label race starts at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in New Delhi and is promoted by Procam International, with 18 men and 18 women invited to the elite line-up.
Legese of Ethiopia, whose personal best of 58:59 is the fastest in the announced field, is chasing a third title in the Indian capital. He narrowly missed the podium last year and arrives looking to put that right. Seven men in the field hold sub-60-minute bests, and Ethiopia has three men in the line-up.
The leading challengers include Kenya's Charles Matata, the 2023 runner-up and a runner-up at this year's Istanbul Half Marathon, Ethiopia's Deriba Tesfaye, who was second at the Rotterdam Marathon, and Melaku Belachew, who won the Hong Kong Marathon in 2026.
In the women's race Kenya's Cheptai, who has a best of 64:53 and won in Delhi in 2022, is bidding for a second title. She won the Burj2Burj Half Marathon in Dubai in February and was sixth at the Boston Marathon. Ethiopia's Melal Siyoum Biratu, last year's silver medallist, and Kenya's Cynthia Limo, the 2024 runner-up, are among her rivals, while Kenyan-born Lonah Chemtai Salpeter, who competes for Israel and took bronze at the 2022 World Half Marathon Championships, is a dark horse.
The total purse is $275,732, with $27,000 for each winner and prize money down to tenth place, plus incentives for the leading Indian finishers. A bonus of $12,000 is on offer to any elite athlete who beats the event record in their category, giving the fast field a clear reason to attack the clock.