Mumbai Marathon: Top Indian athletes gear up to better personal bests

Indian athletes, both men and women, have geared up for the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon, which will take place on Sunday.

Olympian Kheta Ram, who clocked his personal best 2:15:26 at the Rio Olympics last year, is eyeing to better it.

"I have come here on basis of the experience of Olympics only, the way I have practised there, I will complete my race in the same manner here. My target is to break my personal best. My best was 2:15:26 (in the Olympics)," the 32-year-old athlete told reporters on Friday.

"After Olympics, I took rest for a couple of months. I got a month's time to practise. If the temperature remains low in the city (on the race day), that will aid us and it will be easy to run," said Ram, who is with the Army and trains at the Pune-based Army Sports Institute.

Ram, who runs around 250-300 kms in a week, also said he has not seen the race route but said that the ongoing work for the Metro won't affect him. He is also eyeing to qualify for the World Championships to be held in London in August.

Other athlete, Elam Singh, also from Army, too wants to perform to his potential. Singh said he would look to improve his personal best and also win the race.

Another athlete Mohd. Yunus, also running the full marathon, just said training has been good.

In the women's event, Maharashtra's Jyoti Gawade along with Jigmet Dolma and Tsetan Dockar are competing in the full marathon. Dolma comes from Ladakh and has till date run four full marathons. She has been training since last year.