Mumbai Marathon set to witness African safari, ambitious Indian aggro and some Mongolian magic thrown in as top runners prime for big day tomorrow
Mumbai Marathon's elite athletes T Gopi (extreme left), Nitendra Singh Rawat, Amane Gobena, Sudha Singh and Abera Kuma (extreme right) pose in front of CST yesterday. Pic/PTI
Desi met videsi at the press meet and greet held at the Mumbai Marathon press centre at Azad Maidan yesterday. The foreign and Indian elite athletes shared a dais as the co-ordinator began by saying "last year was an astonishing year for road running." Kenyan runner Eliud Kipchoge set a new marathon world record of 2 hours 1 minute and 39 seconds in September.
The fastest man in the field for the city on Sunday is Abe Kuma from Ethiopia. The Arsenal football fan has a 2:05:50 at Rotterdam. Kuma is married to Tejitu Daba, who is also an athlete and competing in the Mumbai marathon. When asked if it was difficult to have two top runners in the family, Kuma smiled and said, "not difficult at all, because my wife is a wonderful lady." Women's defending champion, Ethiopia's Amane Gobena, will look to improve on her 2:25:49 performance in 2018.
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India's champs
The loudest cheers were reserved for India's defending champions Gopi T and Sudha Singh, with the former citing his mother as his "inspiration." Gopi also said he would "try to go under 2:15." The Indian elites are eyeing a place in the World Athletics Championships to be held in Doha (Qatar) in September-October this year. The marathon will be run at midnight in Qatar.
Sudha Singh is trying to emulate Lalita Pawar's feat of becoming thrice winner of the Mumbai marathon. Pawar had won in 2012, 2013 and 2014. Sudha is defending champion and has won twice before. "Initially, I was undecided about competing in Mumbai as I had not trained. I was encouraged by my recent times in practice and have decided to go for it," said Sudha with a smile. Sudha is also aiming to qualify for the Doha meet, where the marathon qualifying is 2:37:00. "I am also hoping to make it for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics," she said. "At the Olympics, I hope to qualify for the 3000m steeplechase or the marathon, any one of the events," the slightly built
runner said.
Gawte confident
India's Jyoti Gawte from Parbani (Maharashtra) had a 2:50:53, when she won in the Indian women's category in 2017 and is expected to snap at Sudha's heels. "I am hoping for a 2:40 this time," said Jyoti and is most excited because "Procam [the organisers] have promised to give me a pace-setter this time, it should help me improve massively." A new runner on the Mumbai block is Mongolian Serod Batochir, who has run a 2:08:50 in 2014 in the Fukoka marathon. Batochir comes from the Govi-Altai province in Mongolia, where the temperature is on an average minus 25 degrees Celsius. But he has no plans to wilt and wither on Sunday, where the weather here is expected to be 21 degrees Celsius. "I have come from an ice-box to a heater, but I will do my best," He laughed and said.
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