Istanbul Half Marathon

The Istanbul Half Marathon (Turkish: İstanbul Yarı Maratonu) is an annual road running event over the half marathon distance (21.1 km) that takes place on the streets of Istanbul, Turkey in April. The event is sponsored by Vodafone. It was promoted to the IAAF Gold Label status for 2017.[1]

Istanbul Half Marathon
DateApril
LocationIstanbul, Turkey
Event typeRoad
DistanceHalf marathon
Primary sponsorVodafone
Established2015
Course recordsMen's: 59:50 (2018)
Amedework Walelegn
Women's: 1:05:30 (2019)
Ruth Chepngetich
Official siteIstanbul Half Marathon
Participants1,638 (2020)
2,606 (2019)

History

The event was established in 1987 under the name "Haliç Yarı Maratonu" ("Golden Horn Half Marathon"), and continued to run until 1993. After a break of 17 years, it revived in 2010 under the name "8th International Golden Horn Half Marathon" with participation of around 1,500 athletes from 22 nations.[2]

The organization of the half marathon took afour-year break until 2015 when the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality re-established the road running event under the name "Istanbul Half Marathon", and Vodafon took over the sponsorship. The start-finish line of the event was relocated to Balat on the coast of Golden Horn.[2]

The first edition immediately attracted high caliber elite runners, resulting in quick winning times of 1:00:13 minutes in the men's category and 1:06:38 minutes in the women's race.[3] A total of 2,095 runners finished the inaugural mass race in Istanbul.[4]

The event was organized by Istanbul Sports Events – the organizer of the long-running Istanbul Marathon event. The half marathon course begins and ends in Eyüp in the central-western part of the city, following a route south to the seafront area of Eminönü. Among other sights, it passes the Golden Horn, Yenikapı square and Kadir Has University.[5] A 10K run is also hosted for amateur runners and this section had over 1500 finishers in 2016.[6]

The 2016 edition of the race gained IAAF Bronze Label status and the field included world record breakers Zersenay Tadese and Leonard Patrick Komon.[7] That year, the event was staged on the same weekend as the Presidential Cycling Tour of Turkey.[8]

In December 2016, it was announced that the event was promoted to IAAF Gold Label status for 2017.[2]

Past winners

Key:   Course record

Year Men's winner Time (h:m:s) Women's winner Time (h:m:s)
2014  Fetene Regasa (ETH) 1:05:20  Bahar Doğan (TUR) 1:16:33
2015  Evans Kiplagat (KEN) 1:00:13  Gladys Cherono (KEN) 1:06:37
2016[9]  Ali Kaya (TUR) 1:00:16  Violah Jepchumba (KEN) 1:08:18
2017[1]  Ismail Juma (TAN) 1:00:09  Ruth Chepngetich (KEN) 1:06:19
2018  Amedework Walelegn (ETH) 59:50  Ababel Yeshaneh (ETH) 1:06:22
2019  Benard Ngeno (KEN) 59:56  Ruth Chepngetich (KEN) 1:05:30
2020  Sezgin Ataç (TUR) 1:03:16  Fatma Demir (TUR) 1:13:17

References
  1. "Vodafone 12. İstanbul Yarı Maratonu koşuldu". Hürriyet (in Turkish). 2017-04-30. Retrieved 2017-04-30.
  2. "Vodafone İstanbul Yarı Maratonu altın kategoride". Hürriyet (in Turkish). 2016-12-15. Retrieved 2016-12-31.
  3. HALF MARATHON ELITE. Istanbul Yari Maratonu (2015). Retrieved on 2016-04-24.
  4. 21K Results. Istanbul Yari Maratonu (2015). Retrieved on 2016-04-24.
  5. Kenyan athletes dominate Istanbul Half Marathon. Daily Sabah (2015-04-18). Retrieved on 2016-04-24.
  6. 10K Results. Istanbul Yari Maratonu (2016). Retrieved on 2016-04-24.
  7. Ramsak, Bob (2016-04-22). World record-holders Tadese and Komon to clash in Istanbul. IAAF. Retrieved on 2016-04-24.
  8. Road closures for two races in Istanbul on Sunday. Daily Sabah (2016-04-23). Retrieved on 2016-04-24.
  9. Ramsak, Bob (2016-04-24). Kaya and Jepchumba cruise to Istanbul Half Marathon titles. IAAF. Retrieved on 2016-04-24.
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