Course records face threat
Elite, Indian athletes look to make most of city’s cool weather to create history
MUMBAI: Course records in both, men’s and women’s elite categories, will be on the line on Sunday with defending champions back on the field, even as cool weather and conditions in the city promise the athletes a platform to give their best at the 17th edition of the Mumbai Marathon here on Sunday.
While the men’s defending champion Cosmas Lagat (Kenya) is participating in a marathon after a year’s gap for having suffered a calf injury, Worknesh Alemu (Ethiopia) has had a successful and busy build-up to the race, which offers a total of $420,000 in prize money.
If the athletes do manage to reset course records, the elite athletes (both men and women) are set to pocket an additional $15,000, whereas the Indian athletes can win an additional ₹1,50,000. The prize money for Elites (both men and women) finishing first is $45,000, whereas Indians are set to win ₹5,00,000.
BUGATHA, SUDHA LOOK TO DOMINATE
Thonakal Gopi, India’s famed marathon runner, is not competing in this year’s race in the men’s section, but 3000m steeplechase athlete Sudha Singh will take track on Sunday morning in a bid to defend her title which she clinched last year too. Sudha has won the Mumbai Marathon for two consecutive years, and despite coming off a thigh injury, the 33-year-old is primed to make a hat-trick of wins in India’s most prestigious marathon event. Sudha will once again be challenged by Maharashtra’s Jyoti Gawate, who had won the race in 2017 and clinched the silver medal in the last edition.
In absence of Gopi, all eyes will be on the Army man Srinu Bugatha, who will be taking help of two experienced foreign pacers provided especially to help him try and set the track record. He had won the Half Marathon in
Mumbai last year. “I am aiming for the course record of 2:15.48. I ran 25km, last year in December (in Kolkata) and I came first. I attained the first position at the Delhi Half Marathon,” he said on Saturday.
“It is the first time that I will be running with special pacers, and it will hopefully help me achieve my best timings. I had run the full marathon here in 2018, but I did not perform well then. I want to win it this time,” Bugatha added. He will be facing stiff competition from another Army man in Rashpal Singh (PB: 2:19.19), who won a silver medal at the South Asian Games in Nepal last year.
DIFFERENT COURSE FOR 2020 EDITION
The course will be slightly different for Elites this year, who will be taking two laps of the iconic Oval Maidan right after the start, in order to delay running into the Marathon Amateurs further in their race.
The idea is also to imbibe the
Elite Men: 2:08.35
(Gideon Kipketer in 2016)
Women: 2:24.33
(Valentine Kipketer in 2013) history and relevance of the Oval Maidan into the race.
The Elite men’s category will have 11 runners clocking under 2:09 in the past, with Lagat facing a stiff competition from Ethiopia’s Ayele Abshero (PB: 2:04.23), Abera Kuma (PB: 2:05.50) as well as Shumet Akalnew (PB: 2:08.50). Akalnew had clinched the silver medal last year.
In the women’s Elite section, Alemu’s fight will be against compatriot Amane Beriso, who had made a sizzling debut in Dubai
Marathon in 2017 by clocking 2:20.48. Almaz Negede, who had finished fifth last year, is also in the field for Sunday’s race.
The Indian runners will also be awarded with ‘time performance bonus’, with those to complete 10k, 20k and 30k with pre-set cutoff timings slated to win financial gains. A total of 55,000 runners overall will be participating on Sunday in the marathon, with women participation surging as high as 35 per cent compared to last year.