World Half Marathon record holder Kibiwott Kandie will face off with Geoffrey Kamworor in the Istanbul Half Marathon slated for April 4 in Turkey.
Kandie, who lowered the world record from 58:01 to 57:32 in Valencia Half Marathon in December last year, starts the race as the marginal race favourite.
Kamoworor, with three world championship under his belt, will be back on the roads following his recovery from surgery after he was hit by a motorcycle in June last year.
Speaking in Eldoret during a massage session, Kamworor said he was happy to be back competing internationally after a year away from competition as a result of coronavirus and a motorbike accident in June last year in Eldoret.
Kamworor said after the accident, he thought his career was over but was quick to note that he is excited to be back on his feet again.
Kamworor won the World Half Marathon title in 2014 before defending it in 2016. He completed a hat-trick of titles in 2018 but failed to make the Team Kenya in 2020 due to a motorbike accident. Kamworor won the New York title in 2017, finished third in 2018 before reclaiming the title again in 2019.
On the cross country front, Kamworor won the world title twice (2015 and 2017) before dropping to bronze in 2019.
He returned to action during the national-cum-Africa cross country trials last month but withdrew from the race prematurely, blaming the muddy situation and hip injury.
“I was determined to run well at the national cross country but the muddy conditions did not give me peace and I picked a hip injury. To avoid the aggravation, I had to drop out after two laps,” added Kamworor.
In Istanbul, Kandie and Kamworor Kenyan duo will be joined by Leonard Barsoton, who was sixth at the World Half Marathon Championships in Gdynia last year .
The Kenyan trio will be up against two sub-59 minute runners in Amedework Walelegn of Ethiopia and Uganda's Stephen Kissa, who made his debut over the distance in February 2020 and closed the year with a time of 58:56. Amedework is the Istanbul Half Marathon record-holder after winning in 2018 in 59:50 minutes.
In the women's category, world marathon record holder, Brigid Kosgei and the women-only half-marathon world record-holder Peres Jepchirchir will be up against the second fastest female runner over the distance, Ethiopia's Yalemzerf Yehualaw.
World marathon champion Ruth Chepngetich and Joan Chelimo Melly will be the other runners to watch out for in the women's race.
The European women-only record-holder Melat Kejeta from Germany will also be on the starting line. The home crowd expects Kejeta’s record to be challenged by Yasemin Can.
Kamworor, Kandie, Kosgei and Yehualaw were among the athletes who had been confirmed for Ras Al Khamimah Half Marathon in February before it was cancelled due to the pandemic.
Having staged a successful edition under intense measures against Covid-19 in September last year, the event is now set to host a limited number of 4000 participants on its traditional month of April.
