New Delhi: Kenya’s Alex Matata was cruising to the finish but Uganda’s Joshua Cheptegei stole victory with a thrilling late charge in the Elite Men’s category of the Vedanta Delhi Half Marathon here on Sunday.

Cheptegei, the Paris Olympics 10,000m champion and the 5,000m gold medallist in Tokyo, clocked 59 minutes, 46 seconds in a brilliant transition from track to road running. Matata, the race leader for the most part, came second in 59:53 with Kenyan compatriot Nicholas Kipkorir third (59:59).

Ethiopia’s Alemaddis Eyayu (1 hr, 08 min, 17secs) won the women’s elite race, ahead of Kenyan favourite Cynthia Limo (1:08:27). Tiruye Mesfin of Ethiopia (1:09:42) finished third.

The warm and humid conditions made it tough for the runners. Alemaddis collapsed on the turf on completing the race, grimacing. Lili Das, the best Indian in the women’s elite category, badly cramped and was in sheer agony and on her stomach on crossing the finish.

In the men’s race, the top trio pushed each other for a sub-60 minutes finish but said the humidity made it difficult to keep up the pace.

Noone would know better than Matata, who had a comfortable lead over Cheptegei and Kipkorir. There was enough drama though for the spectators on the final stretch coming into the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium.

“When I pushed to the 18km, I felt the humidity was not good for me. There was lot of humidity and I felt like stitches on myself. In fact, I thought I was already a winner, but unfortunately my senior (Joshua) came from nowhere and (won). I appreciate it because this race was not easy for everybody,” said Matata.

It was with three kilometres to go that Cheptegei increased his pace, first catching up with Kipkorir and then putting Matata under pressure. He closed the gap as Matata slowed down with fatigue. With barely 800m to go, Cheptegei went past Matata inside the stadium and had enough in his tank to comfortably pull through.

Cheptegei, 28, also the reigning 10,000m world champion, is making his foray into road running after his stupendous success in distance events on the track. On Sunday, he showed why he can be at the top of the world in marathons too.

“Today was a very special day because it was one of those races where you test your mind. For me, in the beginning, I was feeling some problems with the feet, the nails. But then I was persisting, and then I said, “okay, maybe I can fight for that place”,” Cheptegei said.

With every kilometre towards the end, Cheptegei was assessing his plans. “I was feeling again okay; by 16-17 kilometers I said “it’s just four km to go, let me see if I can catch my friend Nicholas”. From there, we pushed each other from 19 up to 20. Then I saw that even No.1 was possible.”

“I want to thank my colleagues, Alex, and my longtime friend Nicholas. We’ve been running with Nicholas for a couple of years now, whether it’s cross-country or track, whether it is the Olympics or (world) championships. So, this is really a great pleasure to run with incredible athletes like them.”

Ethiopians have dominated the Delhi half marathon and Alemaddis maintained the tradition among the women. Kenya’s Cynthia Limo, who won the title here in 2015, and the other Ethiopian Tiruye Mesfin also stayed in the hunt until Alemaddis pulled away halfway into the race, maintained her lead till the end.

“I had a good race. I tried to keep my pace and aimed to finish well,” Alemaddis said.

Sawan wins; Lili-Kavita tussle

Sawan Barwal impressed with a strong finish, clocking 1:02:46 to win the Indian contest. The Himachal Pradesh runner finished ahead of Puneet Yadav (1:03:55) with Kiran Matre (1:04:58) coming third.

There was some controversy among Indian women with defending champion Kavita Yadav accusing winner Lili Das of “disturbing me”. Lili, running her first half marathon, clocked 1:18:12 while Kavita came second at 1:19:44. Asian Games 3,000m steeplechase bronze medallist Priti Lamba was third (1:20:20).

“When she broke away from the group after 12km and then I came behind her, she kept telling me “don’t run behind me, maintain distance or run beside me”. She kept disturbing me from there on. I have never faced this before,” said Kavita.

Lili denied that. “I didn’t disturb her. I just told her to run beside me, we can take the race together. I am a good finisher because I do 800 and 1500m. I was confident of winning and I continued with the same pace. Maybe we spoke a bit, but it is not right that you complain about me in public. The entire road is there to run,” said Lili, who hails from Kolkata and trains in Bengaluru.