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By Wim van Hemert with David Monti
THE HAGUE (19-Feb) -- World record holder Samuel Wanjiru will again compete at the Fortis City-Pier-City Half-Marathon in The Hague on Satusrday, March 15, organizers announced today. It will be the 34th edition of the flat and fast half-marathon where the 21 year-old Kenyan set the current world record last March: 58:33.
For Wanjiru it was the third time he broke the world half-marathon record. The first time he did it was on September 11, 2005, in the Fortis Half-Marathon in Rotterdam with a 59:16 clocking, still the world best for juniors. In 2007 he broke Haile Gebrselassie's 2006 world standard from Phoenix (58:55) with a 58:53 finish time at the Ras Al Khaimah International Half-Marathon in the United Arab Emirates, before lowering his own record in The Hague to 58:33 about five weeks later.
P>Joining Wanjiru in The Hague will be his compatriot Martin Lel, the reigning Flora London and ING New York City Marathon champion. Lel has a half-marathon personal best of 59:30; he is currently training to defend his London title on April 13.
With Wanjiru and Lel added to the field, there are now five athletes in the race with personal best times under 60 minutes. Earlier the start of the Kenyans Patrick Makau Musyoki (58:56) and Francis Kibiwott (59:26), and Ethiopian Deribe Merga (59:16) had been announced.
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