News21 May 2012


Tsegay and Chebet to lead Bogota fields

FacebookTwitterEmail

Yemane Tsegay Adhane wins the 2012 Rotterdam Marathon (© organisers)

Organisers have announced the initial confirmed athletes for the 13th edition of the Bogota Half Marathon on 29 July, an IAAF Gold Label Road Race.

Like the distance events on the Olympic athletics programme which will begin five days later, this year's race will feature a strong match between Kenya and Ethiopia.

At the 2012 London Games there will be only three representatives from each country. Therefore the Colombian race could become attractive to athletes who are not in the showpiece event in world sport.

Leading names on the men's side include Yemane Tsegay of Ethiopia, the reigning Rotterdam Marathon (2:04:48) and defending champion in Taipei, and Wilson Chebet, who won Rotterdam in 2011 (2:05:27) and also the Amsterdam Marathon champion (2:05:53). He finished third last year in Bogota.

They will be joined by Ridouane Harroufi of Morocco who has a personal best of 2:10:14 for the Marathon and and 1:01:37 for the Half Marathon, and Kenyan Isaac Macharia, a four-time winner in Bogota with 1:00:48 and 2:07:16 personal bests.

The women's field has four entries confirmed. The favourite could be Kenyan Emely Chebet, the 2010 World Cross Country champion who finished third in Bogota last year. She'll be joined by compatriot Gladys Cherono, who was third this year in the Ras Al Khaimah Half Marathon and Prague Half Marathon.

Also confirmed are Russia's Olga Glock, second in the Vienna Marathon this year (2:27:18) and Ethiopian Gebre Belainesh, second in the Nagano Marathon in 2011.

Organisers for the IAAF
Pages related to this article
AthletesDisciplinesCompetitions