Africans sweep Mumbai Marathon again

Tribune News Service

Mumbai, January 15

As expected, the African runners dominated the 14th edition of the Mumbai Marathon here today. 

While Tanzania’s Alphonce Felix Simbu won the title in the men’s category, Kenya’s Bornes Kitur Chepkirui walked away with the title in the women’s category.

While Simbu clocked 2 hours, 9 minutes and 32 seconds for the gold, Kenya’s Joshua Kipkorir clocked 2:09:50 for the silver, and his compatriot Eliud Barngetuny took the bronze with a timing of 2:10:39.

In the women’s section, Chepkirui completed the gold-winning run in 2:29:02, followed by Ethiopian Chaltu Tafa at the second spot (2:33:03) and Kenya’s Tigist Getachew Girma at the third spot (2:33:19).

Among the Indian participants, Kheta Ram (2:19:51) of the Indian Army and Jyoti Shanker Gawte (2:50:53) topped the men’s and women’s categories, respectively.

Bahadur Singh Dhoni (2:19:57) and THS Luwang (2:21:19) took the second and the third spots, respectively, in the men’s section while Shyamali Singh (3:08:41) and Jigmet Dolma (3:14:38) took the second and the third spots in the women’s section.

In half-marathon (21.097 km), G. Lakshmanan won in the men’s category while Monika Athare won in the women’s section.

According to the organisers, a record 6,342 participants ran the full marathon, and 14,663 participated in the half marathon. 

Middle-aged Kenyan better than our best

In long distance running, Indian athletes are way behind their competitors. It was illustrated again on Sunday when Kenya’s 43-year-old Eliud Barngetuny took the bronze with a timing of 2:10:39 ahead of the Indian runners. Kheta Ram, India’s top marathon runner, clocked 2:19:51, over nine minutes more than the middle-aged Kenyan runner! Even Ram’s personal best (2:15:26), which he clocked in the Rio Olympics, is nowhere close to the timing recorded by the Kenyan, who was in his prime in the 1990s when he ran 3000m steeplechase and road races.