Olympic silver medallist joins Delhi Half Marathon

New Delhi, Oct 13 (UNI) Sunday's Hutch Delhi Half Marathon received a shot in the arm with world record holder Elana Meyer arriving to compete for the crown and gloss was added to the event with the unveiling of a special cover and a date postmark for the occasion.

Elana, arguably the greatest South African female runner, ruled out the prospect of bettering the World Record of 66.44 which she had created in Tokyo in 1999 but said she would give her best.

''The record was created seven years ago and it's a long time.

Besides, this is my first trip here and I expect it to be quite hot.

To make it worse, I have not run almost in the last two years.

Anyway, I'll try my best,'' she toled reporters here today.

Elana set six word road records, won 30 South African titles and bagged the World Half-Marathon title in 1994.

In 1992 she won the silver medal at 10,000 metres in the Barcelona Olympics.

Elana ran her first world record of 67:59 in the South Africa Half Marathon in May 1991 and followed this up with a global record of 46:57 for 15 km six months later.

In 1994 she set a world record of 15:10 for five km and then three half-marathon records in 1997 (67:36), 1998 (67:29) and 1999 (66:44), all in Japan. Though there have been faster half-marathon times on aided courses, her 66:44 in Tokyo remains the world record.

Her last road race was the Lagos Half-Marathon in November 2004, where she finished third in 1:24:40. After that she retired from competition owing to personal problem.

Earlier, a special cover and a date postmark were unveiled in a programme attended by event's brand ambasadors Kapil Dev and Vijay Amritraj who were joined by Indian Olympic Association President Suresh Kalmadi.

UNI AY BST1711