A few seconds can make a difference

ALLAHABAD: Not only in short sprints, a few seconds can make all the difference in marathons too

he distinction between bagging top honours and accolades and ending up as just another participant could well be as small as a few seconds or a couple of minutes. This was proved in the 31st edition of the prestigious All-India Prize Money Indira Marathon on Thursday.

A scrutiny of marathon results reveal that a difference of mere 19.29 minutes differentiated the winner of the race L Naba Chandra bagging the top prize of Rs 2,01,000 and the 14th place holder Ram Singh Yadav who ended the day as the last athlete to make it for the 11 consolation prizes of Rs 10,000 each.

There was a small difference of only 18 seconds between the second spot holder Arvind Kumar Yadav from Lucknow and Sunil Kumar, a services athlete from Hyderabad, who finished third and bagged Rs 75,000 as cash award.

Record shows that Yadav was just 1 minute and 26 seconds behind the winner L Naba Chandra and ended up losing a substantial amount by taking home just Rs 1 lakh as prize money.

Satya Prakash of Jabalpur missed the podium finish and ended up at the fourth place just 50 seconds behind Kumar. He had to remain content with a consolation prize of Rs 10,000 akin to the 14th spot holder Ram Singh Yadav of Amethi who clocked 2:42:20 hours to finish the run.

Though the difference between the winner and the 14th position holder among women athletes was far greater at over 2 hours and 7 minutes, the difference among podium finishers and the fourth place holder was again limited to a few minutes.

Jyoti Shankar Gawate of Maharashtra won the race with a timing of 2:52:48 hours to take home the prize money of Rs 2,01,000 while Jyoti Singh of Bhadohi had to remain content with the second spot and Rs 1 lakh prize money finishing the race 14.27 minutes later.