Kavita Raut books Olympic berth with marathon gold

Guwahati, February 12

Long-distance runner Kavita Raut’s Olympic qualification was the icing on the cake on yet another impressive day for India with the host country staying miles ahead of rivals on day 7 of the 12^th South Asian Games here today.

Holding on firmly to the top spot in the overall standings, India increased their tally to 248 -- including 146 gold, 79 silver and 23 bronze medals.

Following the hosts at the distant second position was Sri Lanka with 157 medals, including 25 gold, 53 silver and 79 bronze medals. Pakistan remained steady at the third spot with 73 medals (7 gold, 23 silver and 43 bronze).

It was the last day of athletics competitions and Kavita made it special by qualifying for the Rio  Olympics in women’s marathon.

The 30-year-old Raut easily clinched the marathon gold in 2 hours 38 minutes and 38 seconds to become the fourth Indian women to have qualified for Rio Games women’s marathon. The Rio Games women’s marathon qualification standard stands at 2:42:00.

O P Jaisha, Lalita Babbar and Sudha Singh have already qualfied for women’s marathon in Rio Olympics.

Sri Lankans N G Rajasekara (2:50:47.00) and B Anuradhi (2:52:15.00) took the silver and bronze respectively.

Nashik girl Raut is the lone athlete to have qualified for the Olympics from the 12^th SAG.

Another Rio Olympics-bound athlete, Nitender Singh Rawat took the men’s marathon gold in 2:15:18 seconds in a close finish in a star-studded field. He won the race by being merely a second ahead of Indrajith Cooray of Sri Lanka who has also qualified for Rio Games.

The men’s race had a dramatic ending and there was apparently some confusion over the finishing line inside the Indira Gandhi Athletics Stadium.

“Both Rawat and Cooray were not sure of the finishing line and they thought they would finish after running a lap inside the stadium. That was why there was a difference of just one second in the timings of gold and silver winner,” a technical committee member told PTI.

Cooray took the silver in 2:15:19 seconds while another Indian Kheta Ram, the third competitor to have booked a Rio Games berth, got the bronze in 2 hours 21 minutes and 14 seconds.

With today’s two gold and one bronze, India ended the athletics competition with 28 gold, 22 silver and 9 bronze, medals thereby establishing their unrivalled superiority in the South Asian region.

A similar script unfolded in the shooting ranges with Rio Olympics-bound Chain Singh stealing the limelight by grabbing his second yellow metal. In fact, Indians ran away with all the four gold medals on offer in yet another dominating performance. PTI