Man Singh at his best, wins gold at Asian Marathon Championships

Hong Kong, January 21

Man Singh became only the second Indian man to clinch the gold medal at the Asian Marathon Championships as he won the race with a personal best time here today.

The 34-year-old clocked two hours, 14 minutes and 19 seconds to win the competition. His earlier best was 2:16:58, which he had clocked while finishing 11th in the Mumbai Marathon last year.

Singh, who had finished eighth in the Hangzhou Asian Games in 2:16:59, finished well outside the Paris Olympics qualifying mark of 2:08:10.

China’s Huang Yongzheng took silver with a time of 2:15:24, while Kyrgyzstan’s Tiapkin Ilya came third in 2:18:18. Another Indian in the fray, AP Belliappa, finished sixth with a time of 2:20:20.

In the women’s marathon, Ashvini Madan Jadhav finished eighth with a time of 2:56:42, while Jyoti Gawate ended 11th in 3:06:20.

Gopi Thonakal was the first Indian man to win the Asian Marathon Championships title in 2017. He had clocked 2:15:48 to win the gold in Dongguan, China.