Wanjiru, Assefa and Munyao headline Bangsaen21 fields

Rosemary Wanjiru and Tigist Assefa will clash in the women’s race while Alexander Mutiso Munyao leads the entries for the men’s race at the Bangsaen21 Half Marathon, a World Athletics Platinum Label event, in Chon Buri on Sunday (15).

Kenya’s Wanjiru returns to competition for the first time since her runner-up finish at the Tokyo Marathon in March. The 30-year-old, who won in Tokyo in 2023 and also finished second in 2022, ran her marathon PB of 2:16:14 this year, while her half marathon best of 1:05:34 was achieved in Ras Al Khaimah in 2020.

She will be joined in Chon Buri, Thailand, by her compatriots Gladys Chepkurui and Winfridah Moraa Moseti, who have both also dipped under 1:06:00 for the half marathon.

Chepkurui finished third in Barcelona in 1:06:34 in February and was runner-up in the NYC Half in March. Her most recent performance is a second place in the 10-mile Dam tot Damloop in Amsterdam in September in 51:36, while she set her half marathon best of 1:05:46 in Barcelona last year.

Moseti achieved her half marathon best of 1:05:59 in Malaga in March and went on to finish second in the Hamburg Marathon, setting a PB of 2:18:25. She was also third in the Amsterdam Marathon in October.

For Ethiopia’s Assefa, the race in Chon Buri is her first as an Olympic silver medallist. The former world marathon record-holder, who clocked 2:11:53 in Berlin last year, was a narrow second to Sifan Hassan in the Olympic marathon in Paris in August and prior to that she finished second in the London Marathon in April in 2:16:23. She last raced a half marathon in 2022 and her PB of 1:07:28 dates back to April of that year.

London Marathon champion Munyao starts as fastest in the men’s race thanks to the PB of 57:59 he set in Valencia in 2020. The Kenyan 28-year-old ran his marathon best of 2:03:11 in the same city in December last year and more recently won in London in April, running 2:04:01.

He faces his compatriot Geoffrey Toroitich, plus Ethiopia’s Nibret Melak, Leul Gebresilase and Bazezew Asmare.

Toroitich ran his half marathon best of 59:13 in Malaga last year and won a 10km race in Chon Buri in 29:41 in May. Gebresilase is the world marathon bronze medallist who finished second in the London Marathon in 2022 and ran his half marathon PB of 59:18 back in 2017, while African 10,000m champion Melak, who finished seventh in the half marathon at the World Road Running Championships last year, has a best of 59:06.

Elite fields

Women
Rosemary Wanjiru (KEN) 1:05:34
Gladys Chepkurui (KEN) 1:05:46
Winfridah Moraa Moseti (KEN) 1:05:59
Tigist Assefa (ETH) 1:07:28
Antonina Kwambai (KEN) 1:08:07
Joyline Chemutai (KEN) 1:09:44

Men
Alexander Mutiso Munyao (KEN) 57:59
Nibret Melak (ETH) 59:06
Geoffrey Toroitich (KEN) 59:13
Leul Gebresilase (ETH) 59:18
Bazezew Asmare (ETH) 1:01:53
Justus Kangogo (KEN) 1:02:07