Ladakh runners at Mumbai Marathon

This morning among the thousands of runners at the Mumbai Marathon are eight youngsters who have crossed some of the worldrsquos highest passes Thirteen climbers and runners are in town from Ladakh and eight of them will participate in the marathon today Three of them are new recruits in the Ladakh Scouts also known as the snow warriors an infantry regiment of the Indian Army from Phayng Leh LadakhLR Sepoy Rigzin Norbo Shepoy Shabir Hussain and Sepoy Tsering Gyatso who are part of the Ladakh Scouts will run the Mumbai Marathon todaySepoy Tsering Gyatso 20 Sepoy Rigzin Norbo 20 and Shepoy Shabbir Hussain 19 are part of the group mdash five of the eight runners will participate in the full marathon and three will run the half marathonChewang Motup Goba the founder of the Ladakh Marathon is responsible for bringing the team to town ldquoThe three young runners from the Ladakh Scouts are promising They have started running only recently but considering their timing while running at higher altitudes I am sure they will soon be runners to watch out for and do India proudrdquoColonel Sujeet Patil Commanding Officer of Ladakh Scouts Regiment Centre who spoke to SUNDAY MiD DAY from Ladakh said ldquoThe boys have gone to Mumbai from highly challenging areas We have seen them run passionately at altitudes higher than 11000 feet After they broke the Khardungla Challenge in Leh in September 2013 in a record time of 65 hours we decided that one of their prizes would be to send them for the Mumbai MarthonrdquoHe added that the city marathon is an experiment and he is hopeful that the boys will do well in the marathon ldquoIf they do not succeed we will make some changes in our training methodology and will send them to Mumbai againrdquo he saidThe runnersName Tsering Gyatso 20 Born in Shara village in LadakhTsering Gyatso joined the Ladakh Scouts in December 2012 Then a class 11 student of the Government High School in Leh he did not wish to continue with his studies and went for the recruitment with the hope of being employed Gyatso won the full Ladakh marathon in September 2012 Surprisingly Gyatso had never run before the Ladakh Marathon At his first marathon he finished in three hours 32 minutes Last year he came to Mumbai to participate in the marathon but due to lack of practice pulled his hamstring at 32 kmOn September 8 2013 after more practice Gyatso participated in the 72 km Khardungla Challenge and finished second at six hours and 49 seconds Khardungla is just a little under 18000 ft and is the worldrsquos highest marathon The Bangalore ultra marathon course record is seven hours 14 minutes and Gyatso stood second thereToday Gyatso hopes to finish the full marathon in three and a half hours Name Rigzin Norbu 20Born in Shang village in the outskirts of LehLike Gyatso Rigzin Norbu too was a class 11 student when he was recruited in the Ladakh Scouts Norbu ran the first Ladakh Full marathon in 2012 and finished fourth While undergoing regular training at Ladakh Scouts he ran the Khardungla Challenge in Leh in September 2013 and came first with a record timing of six hours 55 minutes Norbu enjoys archery in his spare time and now considers running as his new challenge and dream Name Shabbir Hussain 19 Born in Darkit village in Kargil Shabbir Hussain is from a small family of farmers Hussain was in class 10 when he was recruited in the Ladakh Scouts in December 2012 Hussain had never run in his life and ran routinely as part of his training as a Ladakh Scout He ran the full Ladakh Marathon in September 2013 and finished in three hours 25 minutes Shabbir hopes to get the opportunity to learn ice hockey and continue with the Ladakh Scouts team