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Paul Kirui won the 24th Bewag BERLIN HALF MARATHON of SCC-RUNNING on
april 4th, 2004 in 60.40.
25th Bewag BERLIN HALBMARATHON on april 3rd, 2005 - Germanys biggest and
fastest HALFMARATHON with 17.046 participants from 63 countries and more than
100.000 spectators watching the runners
Sunday 3 October 2004 
hspace="5" vspace="5" />New Delhi - Kenya’s Paul Kirui (see image, Kirui
winning the 24th Bewag BERLIN HALFMARATHON) became the first man ever to win a
World Half Marathon title on Asian soil when he crossed the finish line in the
Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium to take gold in the 13th IAAF World Half Marathon
Championships.
After a sixty second lap of the track in the stadium, the men’s race
set off as the sun broke through the cloud cover and the temperatures started
to rise in New Delhi.
The tail end of the monsoon season had brought torrential downpours the
night before and the air was relatively clear for this city of 11 million
people, with the temperatures moderate at 25 degrees centigrade, with 80%
humidity making sure that the athletes did not have too easy a time of
it.
The early pace was set by Eritrean Yonas Kifle, who led the field through 5
kilometres in 14:48, seven seconds ahead of the rest of the leaders. The East
African teams of Eritrea, Uganda, Kenya and Ethiopia were closely bunched at
this point, with just nine seconds separating the first twenty runners at the 5
km mark.
As the leading pack of twelve runners entered the stadium after reaching
halfway in 29:66, Kenya had taken control, with Wilson Kiprotich Kebenel
heading the leaders as they circuited the track before heading off for another
lap of the course.
Paul Kirui leads the pack
At this stage, four countries were clearly in contention for the team title,
with Kenya, Uganda, Eritrea and Ethiopia all having three runners among the
leaders.
Race favourites John Cheruiyot Korir and Tanzania’s 2003 silver
medalist Fabiano Joseph ...