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Mumbai Mayor’s Marathon 2014: Pal, Lakshmanan,Kavita set new records

Neeraj Pal of Army, Hyderabad, G Lakshmanan of Army Sports Institute, Pune and Kavita Raut of ONGC all broke course records while winning the men’s full marathon, the men’s half marathon and the women’s half marathon, respectively, in the Rs 25 lakh prize money 4th Vasai Virar National Level Mayor’s Marathon, which concluded at the New Viva College, Virar, on Sunday. And, celebrating this astounding running feat unfold was batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar, World Champion long jumper Anju Bobby George and Chennayin FC captain Mikael Silvestre.

Pal, who broke from the field after the 25 km mark, clocked 2:22.38 to break Elam Singh’s time of 2:22.44 set in 2012, while Lakshmanan boke his own record of 67 minutes while clocking 64.56. The cool weather, the fast course and the large crowd support on the route also inspired Kavita Raut to run a brace race, coming home in 76.10 minutes. Kavita, who broke free from the 7km mark, shave almost 6 minutes from Lalita Babbar’s 2013 winning time of 82.07 minutes.

In fact, Kavita’s and Lakshman’s finishing times are among the fastest this year, beating Preeja Sreedhanran’s winning time of 79.03 in the Delhi Half Marathon and Lakshmanan’s time just a few seconds behind Suresh Kumar’s winning time of 64.38 at Delhi.

Pal, who was trailing front runner Vinod Kumar in the initial stages, soon got into his groove to draw level and pull away. He then ran a lone race for about 20 kms before finishing strongly to bag the winner’s purse of Rs 2 lakh. He was followed home by Prahlad Sahai Meena in 2:23.39and Girhs Chndra Tiwari of the Air Force in 2:24.37.

Lakshmanan, recent winner of the Cochin International Half Marathon, continued his good form to lead from the front and finish ahead of Kheta Ram and Sohi Mathew.

Kavita, who is looking to regain her queen bee status among women long distance running in the country, had stated before the race that she would looking for a fast finishing time, thanks to the cool weather, and it didn’t take long for the Nashik athlete to break free from Monika Athare and the Raut sisters, Monika and Kavita. There was no looking back then and Kavita clockedone of her fastest timings to take home the winner’s purse of Rs 1 lakh. She was followed home by Monika Athare and Monika Raut.

A total of 14,00 plus participants took part in the various race categories on race day, prompting Sachin Tendulkar to state that the event is now poised to go international in the coming years.

Following are the results:
Full Marathon (Men): Neeraj Pal (Army, Hyderabad) 2:22.38; Prahlad Sahai Meena (Army, Hyderabad) 2:23.39; Girish Chandra Tiwari (Air Force) 2:24.37
Full Marathon (women): Jyoti Singh 3:11.39; M Sudha 3:27.27; Indresh Dhiraj 3:40.24
Half Marathon (men): G Lakshmanan (ASI, Pune) 1:04.56; Kheta Ram (ASI, Pune) 1:05.33; Soji Mathew (W Railway) 1:06.37
Half Marathon (women): Kavita Raut (ONGC) 1:16.10; Monika Athare (LIC) 1:17.48; Monika Raut (1:20.06)