Both defending champions will return to the Türkiye Is Bankasi Istanbul Half Marathon on April 19. While Alex Matata heads the men’s start list with a personal best of 59:20, fellow Kenyan Miriam Chebet is currently the number three. Ethiopia’s Ftaw Zeray, who recently improved to 65:12 when she took the Paris Half Marathon, is the fastest woman entered. The elite race of the Türkiye Is Bankasi Istanbul Half Marathon will feature a curiosity as well: There are twins on the start list for both the men’s and the women’s races.
The men’s race
Alex Matata has established himself as a leading half-marathon runner. It is his consistency that is striking: In the past two years, the 28-year-old competed in a dozen half marathons, winning ten of them. Matata took three of the highest quality events at this distance in 2025: First he won in Ras Al Khaimah (UAE) with a personal best of 59:20, then he clocked 59:40 in Istanbul despite windy conditions and later in the year he took the New Delhi race in 59:50. Coming back to Istanbul Alex Matata will be eager to build on this extraordinary series. The Kenyan will bring his twin brother to Türkiye: Charles Matata is entered as a pacemaker, but he may opt to finish the race. So far he has a PB of 60:05.
Fellow Kenyan Solomon Yego is the second-fastest runner on the current elite start list. Ten years older than Matata, he ran 59:29 when he was third in Barcelona. He actually has run quite a bit faster. Yego won the Rome Ostia race in 2016 with 58:44, smashing the course record. Since it is a point-to-point course and slightly downhill, results from Ostia are not record eligible and do not appear in the official lists. But it takes nothing away from his great performance ten years ago. More recently, Yego ran 60:42 in Buenos Aires for seventh place in 2025.
Shura Kitata is an athlete who has had great success in the marathon. The 29-year-old Ethiopian won the London Marathon in 2020 and very recently produced a fine PB of 2:03:59 when he took the Seville Marathon last month. This performance suggests that he could run a strong half-marathon and may even be able to challenge for victory in Istanbul. Kitata’s official PB stands at 59:47 from Houston six years ago. In 2018, he won the Philadelphia Half Marathon with 59:16, but the course was uncertified, so the result is not officially listed.
Ali Kaya, the former Turkish record holder, who clocked 60:16 in Istanbul ten years ago, is the leading European athlete on the current start list. The 31-year-old was tenth here last year.
The woman’s race
Miriam Chebet will surely look forward to returning to the Türkiye İş Bankası Istanbul Half Marathon. It was in this race a year ago when she achieved her biggest career victory so far and clocked her PB of 66:07. Later in 2025, Chebet also won the Cardiff Half Marathon with 66:36, and this year she has already shown fine form again. In January, the 23-year-old Kenyan improved her PB at 10k to 30:08 in Valencia.
Defending her Istanbul crown will, however, not come easily for Miriam Chebet. Ethiopian duo Ftaw Zeray and Asmarech Anley travel to Türkiye with confidence after very strong performances in the past two months. 28-year-old Zeray is in excellent form. She was third in the Dubai Half Marathon in February with 67:01 and then ran to victory in Paris this month with a 65:12 course record, which is also a personal best. Ftaw Zeray has focused very much on this distance and achieved an impressive series of top times. In the past 24 months she has run under 68:00 minutes nine times. And in three of these races, she ran sub 67:00. Additionally, the Ethiopian was sixth at the 2023 World Half Marathon Championships in Riga.
A newcomer in the half-marathon is also expected to compete at the very front of the field: Asmarech Anley ran a great debut little over a month ago, when the Ethiopian won the competitive Ras Al Khaimah Half Marathon in 67:22 without pacemakers. Kenya’s Evaline Chirchir achieved a very similar time when she was third in Houston with 67:26 in January. She has a PB of 66:01, which makes her the second fastest behind Zeray on the current start list.
Caroline and Purity Gitonga of Kenya must be the world’s fastest twin sisters in the half-marathon. Caroline has a PB of 66:26 while Purity’s personal record stands at 67:31. But on the only occasion when they competed together in an international half-marathon in Udine three years ago, Purity was ahead and won the race while Caroline finished runner-up. They would have to produce something special to achieve another one-two finish when they run the Türkiye Is Bankasi Istanbul Half Marathon.
Biggest Turkish road race
Organizers are expecting a record total of around 20,000 athletes to participate in Turkey’s strongest international road race event. This includes a 10k race, which is staged parallel to the half-marathon.
Entries for the 21st Türkiye Is Bankasi Istanbul Half Marathon, which is a World Athletics Gold Label Road Race, are still accepted at: https://www.istanbulyarimaratonu.com/en/
More information and online entry at: https://www.istanbulyarimaratonu.com/en/
