Former champs, big names grace the marathon

Kabeer Khan
Over 42,000 runners will be looking to put their best foot forward on Sunday for the the Mumbai Marathon. Making a push for the 42.193 kilometers run will be athletes like the young 20-year old Ugandan Robert Chemonge as well as defending  women’s champion Bornes Kitur from Kenya. A total of 405,000 US dollars will be distributed among winners from different categories. The winner of the elite category will take home USD 42,000. Over the years, the competition in this particular class has been the most exciting to watch with the runners keen on breaking their own records.

Breakdown of the runners

The quickest man on paper
With men’s defending champion, Alphonce Simbu out of the marathon for this edition, Solomon Deksisa who is also the fastest runner in the Tata Mumbai Marathon, will be the most likely champion. The Ethiopian can boast of a best of 2:06:22, more than two minutes quicker than the course record.
Deksisa, 23, ran that time when finishing second at the 2016 Rotterdam Marathon. After placing third in the Toronto Marathon last October, he will be bidding for his first marathon victory in Mumbai.

The defending champion
Last year’s winner in the women’s category, Bornes Kitur from Kenya, had emerged as the winner with a timing of 2:29:02. Kitur followed up her win in Mumbai by setting a personal best of 2:29:01 while finishing second in the Sydney Marathon in September.
However, the slight favourite on form over the last two years will be the fastest women in the field, Ethiopia’s Amane Gobena. Now 35, Gobena ran her personal best of 2:21:51 when finishing second in the 2016 Tokyo Marathon and returned to the famous race in the Japanese capital last February where she finished third with 2:23.09.

The contenders
Two other young Ethiopian runners are perhaps the men most likely to spring a surprise on their rivals. Yitayal Atnafu, 24, was the 2011 African U20 5,000m champion on the track and set a marathon personal best of 2:07:21 while finishing fourth in the Paris Marathon last year. He also finished second in the Houston Marathon earlier last year and like Deksisa, will be motivated to go for his first marathon victory.
Aychew Bantie, 23, has few international credentials but clocked 2:09:40 in his one and only marathon to date, in a high-quality affair in Amsterdam last October. He would have learnt a lot from that experience. Among the prominent Kenyan runners in the elite field are Joshua Kipkorir and Eliud Barngetuny, who were placed second and third in last year’s Mumbai Marathon.

The Indian contingent
Thonakal Gopi, better known as Gopi T, made in to the Summer Olympics in 2016. His personal best of 2:15:25 from the Rio Olympics is quite impressive. Gopi could pose a strong challenge to the foreign elite runners along with other Indian runners like Nitendra Singh Rawat, who holds a personal best of 2:15:18 and is one of the three Indian Olympians to represent the country at an Olympic Games (2016) after the 1960 Rome Olympics. He timed 2:15:48 at TMM 2016 to qualify for the Olympics.
Among the women, Sudha Singh holds her personal best at 2:39:28 in the 2016 edition of the Mumbai Marathon. The Arjuna Awardee’s experience may give her an edge over her  opponents.