Two Former Champions Lead the Fields at the 2026 Delhi Half Marathon

Birhanu Legese, who won in 2015 and 2017, is going for a third title on Sunday. Irine Cheptai, the 2022 winner, comes back seven weeks after finishing second at the Sydney Marathon.

Published: Oct 17, 2026 7:14 pm

Jessy Carveth

Jessy Carveth

Jessy is our Senior News Editor, pro cyclist and former track and field athlete with a Bachelors degree in Kinesiology.

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Birhanu Legese has a chance on Sunday to become the first man to win the Delhi Half Marathon three times. The Ethiopian took the World Athletics Gold Label race in 2015 and 2017, and he is joined at the front of the start lists by Kenya’s Irine Cheptai, the 2022 women’s champion, whose personal best is the fastest in the women’s field announced by race organizer Procam International.

Cheptai’s best of 1:04:53, from the Valencia Half Marathon in 2023, is only seven seconds slower than the 1:04:46 course record Yalemzerf Yehualaw set here in 2020, though she was careful this week not to promise anything close to it. She finished second to Peres Jepchirchir at the Sydney Marathon on Aug. 30 in 2:22:11 and took two weeks off before she started training again. “I am still recovering, and I wouldn’t say I am in top shape at the moment, but I will do my best on Sunday,” she said.

Two Former Champions Lead the Fields at the 2026 Delhi Half Marathon 1

In February she won the Burj2Burj Half Marathon in Dubai in 1:06:57, holding off Daisilah Jerono by two seconds in her first race since running 2:18:51 for second at the Shanghai Marathon in 2025. The 2017 world cross-country champion also has a good record in Delhi itself: when she won four years ago she ran 1:06:42 and finished 1:20 ahead of Dawit Seyaum.

Cynthia Limo, entered at 1:06:04, knows the course nearly as well. The Kenyan won here in 2015, the same morning Legese took his first title, and was second to Alemaddis Eyayu in 2024. Lonah Chemtai Salpeter, who was born in Kenya and has been an Israeli citizen since 2016, took marathon bronze at the 2022 World Championships in Eugene. Sunday will be her first race in India, and it comes as she returns from a hamstring injury in May. Her half-marathon best of 1:06:09 dates to 2019, and she ran her 2:17:45 marathon best when she won Tokyo in 2020. Neither of the last two winners, Lilian Rengeruk and Eyayu, is on the start list.

Birhanu Legese Returns to a Race He Has Won Twice

Legese’s two Delhi titles came either side of a win here by Eliud Kipchoge in 2016, and the two are training partners now. Legese said he spent his buildup in Kaptagat with Kipchoge, who won the Melbourne Marathon last Sunday in a course record of 2:09:10, because Addis Ababa’s traffic, among other problems, made it hard to train at home. “I am in good shape and have trained well, and we will see how I do on Sunday,” he said. “I like Delhi; it is almost like a second home.”

Legese, 32, has done most of his best work over the full distance, winning Tokyo in 2019 and 2020 and running 2:02:48 for second at the 2019 Berlin Marathon. He was fourth in Delhi a year ago in 1:00:54, a little over a minute behind the winner, Alex Matata.

Two Former Champions Lead the Fields at the 2026 Delhi Half Marathon 2

The quickest man on the start list is Samwel Masai, who ran 58:48 for second at the Prague Half Marathon in March, behind Rodrigue Kwizera. That time is five seconds inside the course record of 58:53 that Amedework Walelegn set in 2020, and Legese’s own best of 58:59 is close behind it.

Charles Matata could keep the title in the family. His twin brother Alex, last year’s winner, is not back to defend it after finishing eighth at the World Half Marathon Championships in Copenhagen last month, and is instead entered in the Valencia Half Marathon on Oct. 25. The brothers finished together in Istanbul in April, both timed in 1:00:01 with Alex given the win, and Charles went on to win the Riga Half Marathon in May in 59:15, five seconds outside the Riga course record.

The winners each receive $27,000 from a total purse of $275,732, and anyone who breaks a course record earns a further $12,000. Procam International’s YouTube channel will carry the race from 5 a.m. local time on Sunday (7:30 p.m. ET on Saturday), and World Athletics is streaming the world feed on its own channel.