Two armymen emerge favourites to win elite Indian men's category of Mumbai Marathon today
Though Karan Singh relished his vanilla ice-cream after lunch on Saturday, the fastest Indian in the elite men's category at last year's Mumbai Marathon could not help feeling the heat on the eve of the 12th edition of the annual event.
Given that Ram Singh, the fastest Indian last year, has recovered from his knee injury, it's the two armymen who go in as favourites.
“There is no pressure as such. When fit, Ram has always finished in the top-two. It's good to see him fit this time. It just raises the stakes. The two of us have trained together and know each other's strengths and weaknesses. You push your game to another level when you have someone you know takes part alongside,” said Karan, who is a Hawaldar at the Army Sports Institute in Pune.
Organisers have announced that the two fastest Indian men and women on Sunday will get to participate in the New York Marathon in November, but the number as far as the men are concerned is two hours and 18 minutes. That's the cut-off qualification for the men to qualify for the World Athletic Championship in Beijing this August.
Ram Singh, knows a bit or two about how to go about it having managed to register a timing below 2:18.00 in Mumbai when he qualified for the 2012 London Olympics (he ran in 2:16:59).
“Last year was indeed a huge disappointment (pulled out during the race due to injury) but it motivated me for this year's race. Everyone is thinking about two hours and 18 minutes. I have done it three years back and with the weather being much cooler than it normally is in Mumbai, I could do it again,” said Ram Singh who is a Hawaldar at the Artillery Centre in Hyderabad.
As far as Karan is concerned, the 25-year-old has ground to make up for having clocked his personal best timing of 2 hours 22 minutes and 30 seconds at the De Lage Landen Marathon Eindhoven in the Netherlands in October 2014.
Both Ram and Karan were quick to express their displeasure over some Indian athletes participating in tournaments just for the prize money.
“How else would one qualify for prestigious events? We've got a chance to run at New York. That comes later. But Beijing is on everyone's mind. We are not running for the prize money. If I don't finish first, the person behind me will. So there is always somebody to win. I want to run in Beijing and the cut-off number is all that I have been thinking off. That aside I have Rio in my mind as well and have no plans of retiring before that,” said 34-year-old Ram, only the second Indian athlete to qualify for the marathon event of the Olympics.
“If I don't make the cut here, I have to run the London Marathon in April and Berlin Marathon in September so that I run in Rio. We'd like to run as less marathons as possible in order not to suffer burn out,” said Karan.
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