Elite stars to take two laps of Oval Maidan
MUMBAI: A revised route for the Mumbai Marathon was unveiled on Wednesday, with the Elite runners set to take two laps of the iconic Oval Maidan soon after they set off from the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus early on Sunday morning. The Mumbai Marathon is set to have both its Elites defending winners—cosmas Lagat from Kenya in the men’s section and Worknesh Alemu from Ethiopia in the women’s—hitting the track to defend the titles which they clinched comprehensively last year.
More than 55,000 runners will be participating in the marathon—14,000 of them having raised over ~33cr for various causes—with both, the marathon amateurs and half-marathon runners, starting off a little over two hours (5:15am) from the elite athletes (7:20am). The organisers have also taken steps to ensure the elite athletes do not run into the crowd of other runners by having each of the two lanes at various places, such as the Pedder Road, to be used for running. Last year, the marathon amateurs’ race began at 5:30am, 15 minutes later than this year’s start.
Explaining the change in route for the elite runners, race director Hugh Jones said, “The reason is that there would be less friction between the mass race and the elite race—both move at two different speeds. In the past, in some sections, we have to clear the way—get runners to a side—so that the fast runners can run through.”
“That has been minimised now, especially in the places where we are facing most runners. I think from the 30km-mark onwards, all that is now pretty much completely separated. They will be on the other side of the barrier—running on two different lanes,” Jones said.
Another reason to make the elite runners take two laps of the Oval Maidan was to ensure that the event connects with the spirit of the venue and with several youngsters playing and learning their cricket.
Also, the addition of another lap covers about 1.7km of the race, which has been adjusted with a turn around the circle near INS Trata.
“When we did it last year (to include a lap of Oval Maidan) we did notice that it is a qualitypacked ground… the quality scenery of the Oval Maidan. Not only that, there were people turning up for cricket practice and there was quite a bit of interaction with the people who were there to do their thing, as well as cheering the runners when they went past.”
I only had a brief look at it but it really felt like what should be the essence of a city marathon— you got this inter-play between the city and the runners. We felt to go around twice would do no harm,” he said.
Like last year, the organisers aim for a 100 per cent waste-management event, working with the BMC, Hasiru Dala Innovations and Stree Mukti Sanghatana.