Rawat, Sudha qualify for Worlds

Mumbai: Nitendra Singh Rawat and Sudha Singh qualified for the IAAF World Championships in Doha. Both bagged top podium finishes among the Indian men’s and women’s athletes in full marathon respectively.

Sudha finished eighth in 2:34:56 which was her personal best and course record among Indian women here. This was second fastest time by an Indian woman ever, just 13 seconds away from the Indian national record held by O.P Jaisha.

However, Jaisha’s Mumbai course record of 2:37:29 was beaten by Sudha on Sunday. Two-time Mumbai Marathon winner, Jyoti Gawte, finished second clocking 2:45:48 and Jigmet Dolma from Ladakh managed to secure the second-runner up position with the timing of 3:10:42.

“I have qualified for Asian Championship from home and it is a big think. Now I have to qualify in steeple chase and with endurance and speed already there I have to train now with hurdles and on water. I am training in Bengaluru since October 26 after getting rest post Asian Games and now later this week I will go Ooty to train further. I want to do well and key is to continue training without hiccups and results will follow,” she said on Sunday.

Rawat clocked 2:15:52 in the men’s race, he missed the course record by mere four seconds. His Army Sports of India, Pune, teammate Gopi Thonakkal, however, had a forgettable day as he developed cramps en route, but managed to clock 2:17:03 to finish second among the Indian runners. Gopi was defending champion while Rawat was 2018 runner up here. Karan Singh, winner of the Mumbai Marathon in 2014 and 2015 finished third 2:20:10 on Sunday.

Rawat, who was happy to have qualified for the World Championships, said: “We were faster than the pace that we set in the beginning, which would have helped us with the better timings. However, certain ups and downs post the half-way mark were the reasons for a slightly lower timing,” said Rawat, who was emotional at the finish line.

“I don’t know what happened, i was like vomiting and it was tough in last 3-4 kilometres. I was happy to finish. I had got some criticism before the race, hopefully now I will get some nice messages. I will now train for London Marathon and would need sponsorship for the same,” Rawat added.

Gopi rued calf injury that made things difficult for him. “My preparation was good, and accordingly I was expecting a better timing. After 35 minutes, I felt that my calf muscle got tight because of which I had to stop in between, stretch and begin again.”