15 January,2009 07:26 AM IST | | Ashwin Ferro
Defending champion! Ram Singh Yadav after emerging fastest among the Indian athletes at the SCMM 2008, clocking 2:18:23
Two-time Indian winner of the Mumbai Marathon, hawaldar Ram Singh Yadav is aiming for a hat-trick and that too in a record time of two hours, 15 minutes
Army Sports Institute's 28-year-old hawaldar Ram Singh Yadav is a man on a mission.
Thankfully, for the terror-afflicted city of Mumbai, this mission has nothing to do with a gun but instead it is about an annual run.
On a hat-trick
Two-time winner (among the Indian athletes) of the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon, Yadav is desperate to do the hat-trick.
And if he is to be believed, he will not only go on to win the race for the third time on the trot, but will do so in record time too.
"My aim is to break the 2-hour-15-minute barrier," Yadav told MiD DAY from Pune yesterday.
It may seem to be too tall a claim for an Indian given that the current fastest time for the SCMM is 2:18:23 seconds, set by Yadav himself. But considering it was this very man, who comfortably shaved over two minutes off the previous best time of 2:20: 33 (again set by him in 2007), it's certainly not impossible.
Since last year...
However, Yadav knows he has a mountain to climb. "Since the last edition of the SCMM, I've won marathons in Hyderabad (June) and Allahabad (November) and stood 16th in the Singapore leg (December) of the Greatest Race on Earth (GROE) clocking two hours, 22 minutes. But they were all in different conditions. If the Mumbai weather is favourable, I can win here with a good time," he added stressing on the fact that ultimately long distance running is all about sheer belief.
"It's only a matter of believing in your ability. The rest will take care of itself," said the farmer from Varanasi, who is currently clocking over four hours of practice daily with trainer Subhedar Maithu.
Body needs rest
"I'm running about 25 to 30 kms daily and the timing is very much up to my expectation. The idea is to deliberately not run the full course (42.195 kms) in the last few days heading into the race because that leaves the body with very little time to recover.
"It is very important that the the body has ample rest before something as gruelling as a marathon," explained Yadav.
