Although Ram finished atop among the Indians, he was unhappy with his performance as he compared to his show in Rio, in which he finished in 02:15.26
Kheta Ram, who clocked his personal best timing to finish 26th at the 2016 Rio Olympics, turned out to be the fastest Indian in the full marathon here on Sunday.
With the likes of Thanackal Gopiand Nitendra Singh Rawat skipping the event, the 30-year-old Ram was the stern favourite to be the quickest local contender. And he didn’t disappoint the home fans, clocking 02:19.05.
Bahardur Singh Dhoni was a close second with a timing of 02:19.57, while TH Sanjith Luwang managed the final place on the podium with a 02:21.19 finish.
Although Ram finished atop among the Indians, he was unhappy with his performance as he compared to his show in Rio, in which he finished in 02:15.26.
“I rested for a couple of months after the Olympics and practiced for just one month for the Mumbai Marathon. My timing is not very good but I am happy to have finished first,” said Ram.
Meanwhile, Dhoni was happy with his personal best timing. “We practiced nicely. I tried by best (to push) in the last 3-4 kilometers,” he said.
Third-placed Sanjith, however, was not complacent. “I pushed after 35 kilometers, but I’m not happy with my performance. (I) will try to do better next year,” he said.
Elsewhere, however, there were some disappointing performances from some of the fancied Indian marathoners including Mohammad Yunus and Elam Singh.
While Yunus, who finished ahead of Dhoni to win the Kolkata Marathon last year, managed a substandard sixth-place position with a timing of 02:23.18, Elam narrowly missed the podium after finishing fourth in 02:21.27.
JYOTI TRIUMPHS
With the likes of OP Jaisha, Lalita Babar, Sudha Singh, and Kavita Raut missing from this year’s event, the women’s field was wide open for some of the other fringe runners to break into the limelight. However, it was just Jyoti Gawte who impressed with her performance, the Maharashtra runner leading throughout the course to take the top honour with a timing of 02:50.53. There wasn’t really any competition for Jyoti as the second and third-placed runners — West Bengal’s Shyamali Singh and Ladakh’s Jigmet Dolma — finished second and third with timings of 03:08.41 and 03:14.38, respectively.
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