Indrajeet, Deepak set for exciting battle

Bengaluru: Indrajeet Patil and Deepak Kumar Bapu will lead the Indian challenge in the men’s 10K event in the TCS World 10K Bengaluru on Sunday. The Indian contingent will feture 20 male and female athletes vying for the top prize.

With a personal best of 29:41 seconds, Indrajeet, who finished fourth in his previous attempt here in 2015, should be the man to beat but with the 20-year veteran in Deepak, it may well end up being youth versus experience for the top prize. And as the winner of the Mumbai half Marathon with a timing of 1:06.30s this year, Deepak has that in plenty.

“I want to come in the world top 10 level in this race,” said Indrajeet, throwing down the gauntlet. For Deepak, the motivation is something else. “I’ve been running for 20 years and I haven’t won a medal in 10K. So I need to win,” he stated.

Other contenders include Army men Shankar Mann Thapa and Tirtha Pun while national campers Ranjeet Singh and Naveen Kumar, who arrived on Saturday evening, will also be ones to watch out for.

Neither of last year’s winners, G Lakshmanan and Swati Gadhave, will be participating in the race having pulled out to prepare for the Federation Cup. Belliappa and Mohammad Yunus have also given the event a skip.

Kiran, Saigeeta lead challenge
In the women’s section, Railway’s Kiran Sahdev will lead the field. With a personal best of 35:34 seconds, Kiran has the best figures in the event.
Saigeeta Naik, Kiran Sahadev, Monica Raut and Jyoti Chauhan will also vie for the top spots with the latter being a particularly interesting case having just qualified for the World University meet following 37:18 seconds performance in the 10K event in the All India University meet. Late arrivals Kiranjeet Kaur and Prenu Yadhav also have it in them to be the dark horse.