Army’s Nitender marathon man

Nitender Singh of the Army Sports Institute (Pune) grabbed top honours in his debut marathon but runners from Army Athletics Node, Artillery Centre (Hyderabad) took the other four spots in the top five at the 65th InterServices Athletics Championships that concluded here on Friday.

Nitender completed the 42-kilometre run from Artillery Centre to Shankerpally and back (21km up and down) in two hours, 21 minutes and 42 seconds to emerge clear winner. However, he fell short of the qualifying time for next year’s Olympic Games, set at 2:18.00.

Nitender was followed to the finish line by Bahadur Singh Dhoni, Inderjeet Singh, Satyabhan and Rashpal Singh — all from the Army Athletics Node, Artillery Centre, Hyderabad.

The event was conducted in accordance with the rules and regulations visaa-vis dope tests, and was attended by Athletics Federation of India’s technical delegate Raja Velu.

In all, 32 runners from the Army, Navy and Air Force participated in the race, which would also serve as a selection event for the World Military Games to be held in October this year at Rio, venue for the 2016 Olympics.

This was Nitender Singh’s first marathon — he used to take part in 5,000 km and 10,000 km races earlier. Runner-up Bahadur Singh has participated in the Mumbai Marathon earlier in January this year.