New Delhi: The World’s Most Prestigious Half Marathon, the Airtel Delhi Half Marathon, will be promoted by the world’s leading former marathon runners. Former double world record holder in the full marathon, Moroccan American, Khalid Khannouchi has confirmed his presence in Delhi as the Event Ambassador for the Airtel Delhi Half Marathon, to be run on November 27, 2011.
Khannouchi will be joined in Delhi by his coach and manager, Sandra Inoa, who is also a former elite runner from the Dominican Republic and will be in the city in the days leading up to the event and meet and interact with the participants, the media as well as the sponsors and partners of the event, besides being an integral part of the Race Day Celebrations.
Moroccan by birth, Khalid Khannouchi is now an American citizen. He is the former world record holder for the marathon and also held the former road world best for the 20 km distance. He is one of only five men to break the marathon world record more than once, and one of only four to break their own marathon world record.
Khannouchi won his first marathon in Chicago in 1997, his winning time of 2:07:10 at that time the fastest debut marathon in history and the fourth fastest marathons of all time.
Khannouchi became the first runner in the world to go below 2hrs:06 mns, when he won the 1999 Chicago Marathon in a world record time of 2:05:42. He broke his own world record while winning the 2002 London Marathon in a new world record time of 2:05:38, which is considered one of the great moments in distance running history. The same year he clocked 2:05:56 while winning the Chicago Marathon, becoming the first man in history to break 2:06 twice in one year and was ranked as the number #1 marathoner in the world by Track & Field News and their American Athlete of the Year.
Khalid Khannouchi is one more illustrious name in the list of sports greats that Procam International has invited to the India to be event ambassadors for their three distance running events, in Mumbai, Bangalore and Delhi.
In 2008 the Airtel Delhi Half Marathon had athletics legend Jackie Joyner-Kersee and Sir Richard Hadlee as the Event Ambassadors, while in 2009 Catherine Freeman and Allan Border did the honours. Beijing Olympics Marathon champion Constantina Dita was confirmed as Event Ambassador for the 2010 edition, but could not make the trip at the last moment due to delays in procuring a travel visa.
