Six Indians for 24-hour World Marathon

CHOUDHARY, 38, IS AN MBA FROM OXFORD AND HAS RUN 11 RACES, INCLUDING THE 89KM COMRADES MARATHON

squad ofultra marathoners who will represent India in the 24-hour World Championships to be held in Belfast on July 1.The championships is being organised by the International Association of Ultrarunners (IAU), which is affiliated to the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF). The Indian federation recently became a member.

Choudhary, 38, is an MBA from Oxford and has run 11 races, including the 89km Comrades Marathon while Meenal, 36, is a Delhi-based CA, who began running ultra marathons in 2014.

In the men’s section, Kieren D’Souza, 24, was the first Indian to run the Spartathlon, a 246-km race in Greece, finishing in 33 hours, 25 minutes to be ranked 84th out of 370 runners from 40 countries.

Arun Bhardwaj, 48, is a government official with a running experience of 15 years. Ullas Narayana, 37, lives in Vancouver and is an animator for Industrial Light and Magic.

Amit, a 33-year-old research fellow in medical biotechnology at PGIMER, Chandigarh, took up running to stay fit. After initially running half-marathons, Amit graduated to ultra marathon and has taken part in a number of events. “This is a great initiative by AFI, to join IAU, and this has opened the doors for the running community in India for competing at the Worlds. My happiness knows no bounds, it’s a once in a life time opportunity to represent the country,” said Amit, who runs 15-20km everyday to prepare for ultra marathons.