New Delhi: International elite athletes, including world champion marathoner Geoffrey Kirui and 10,000m Olympic gold medallist Almaz Ayana, on Thursday brushed aside concerns of pollution in the national capital and said they were ready for the Delhi Half Marathon on Sunday.
There have been calls to postpone or cancel the event and the Delhi High Court had issued a notice to the race organisers after the Indian Medical Association wrote a letter to the Court in this regard. But the likes of Kenyan Kirui and Ethiopian Ayana have no such concerns and said they were looking forward to the race. The international elite athletes reached India yesterday and were introduced to the media on Thursday.
"I am feeling all right. Everybody is going to run and I am also going to run. I am not concerned about this (pollution)," Ayana, who broke the world record in women's 10,000m race during gold winning feat in Rio Olympics, said.
On Sunday, 25-year-old Ayana, who also won the 10,000m gold in the London World Championships in August, is setting foot on the Indian soil for the first time and will also be making her debut over the half marathon distance.
She is running only the second international road race in her career after the a 10,000m race way back in 2010 in Angola.
She, however, said she is not contemplating running half marathon regularly in addition to the 5000m and 10,000m.
Ayana is currently the leading women's long distance runner in the world. She is also the second fastest runner of all time in 5000m. She won a 5000m silver in the London World Championships and is one of the three nominated for the IAAF Women Athlete of the Year.
"After World Championships, I continued training. There are not many good competitions so I trained hard for ADHM.