Gopi & Sudha are fastest Indians
Pune-based armyman Gopi Thonkal won the Mumbai Marathon India men’s category and Olympian Sudha Singh won gold in the women’s section on Sunday.
Singh, who bagged the gold in Asian Athletics Championships, won the event with great difficulty as she suffered body cramps during the run. “I faced cramps at least thrice during run. The rising heat made it more difficult before I was about the approach the finishing line. My only aim was to complete the event and I am happy that I could do it,” said Singh.
The top three Indian women who completed the run were Singh at 2:48:32, Jyoti Gawte at 2:50:47 and Parul Chowdhary at 2:50:47. Gawte who belongs to Parbhani said she was glad that she could participate and rank second in the event. While it was Chowdhary’s first run in the full marathon category.
Indian elite men Gopi Thonakal and his army rival Nitendra Singh Rawat, finished just outside the top ten in 11th and 12th places. Thonokal managed to inch ahead of his Rawat in the last stretch at 2:16:51 seconds. Srinu Bugatha was third.
Upon winning the race, Gopi said, “I am happy that I won this year. I have been practising since 2016 and been following a very strict regime. I would like to thank my coach, the Athletics Federation of India and ASI Pune for supporting me to come forward and run for this marathon.”
In the half-marathon, Sanjeevani Jadhav from Maharashtra, the first Indian to win a silver medal at the World University Games, completed the race in 1:26:24 seconds and Pradeep Singh from Uttarakhand with 1:05:42 won under the category. The other two women who secured second and third were Monika Athare at 01:27:15 and Juma Khatun at 01:27:48. Shankar Man Thapa secured second at 01:06:40 and Deepak Khumbar secured third at 01:06:54 in the men’s half-marathon category.