Bugatha Srinu came close to qualifying for the Tokyo Olympic Games but had to endure disappointment in the Ageas Federal Life Insurance New Delhi Marathon on Sunday. He won the event in 2 hours 14 minutes 58 seconds, a mere three minutes and 28 seconds away from the magic number laid down by World Athletics.
Srinu improved on his previous best – 2:18:44 set in the 2020 Mumbai Marathon – and drew some satisfaction of having run the third fastest marathon by an Indian. Shivnath Singh set the National Record at 2:12:00 on May 28, 1978 while Gopi clocked his fastest time of 2:13.39 in Seoul on March 17, 2019.
Needing an average pace of 3.11 minutes per kilometer, Bugatha Srinu showed that he had planned his race pace well by managing a 3:06 minutes per kilometer pace over the first 6.2 km. He then maintained it a very good 3.09 minutes per kilometer pace till the mat at the 27.3km mark.
Though he was tiring a bit after 85 minutes of running at a pace he was not very familiar with, he managed to retain his pace at 3:11 minutes per kilometer until the 38.4km mat but it was evident then that unless he found a second wind, his intense desire alone was not going to able to take him to the qualification standard and a new National record.
In the women’s race, Sudha Singh was not as close, missing the Olympic qualifying mark by 14 minutes 11 seconds. Even at the halfway stage, it was clear that she would be unable to secure a berth in her third Olympic Games.She was left disappointed that she was more than eight minutes slower than her personal best of 2:34:56 set in the Mumbai Marathon on January 20, 2019.
NEB Sports did well to schedule the start of the elite races at 4.30 a.m. to ensure that the runners would not have to deal with heat. The flat course, two loops of just over 21km each, was expected to not challenge the well prepared and confident men and women, but the target times that they were chasing – 2:11:30 and 2:29:30 respectively – were beyond their reach on Sunday.
Srini Bugatha and Sudha Singh will now return to the drawing boards in their training bases in the Army Sports Institute, Pune, and Netaji Subhas National Institute of Sports, Patiala, to mount their challenge in the Mumbai Marathon on May 30.
Nupur Singh, who traces her roots to Lalitpur in Bundelkhand region of Uttar Pradesh but has chosen to heed the call of the mountains, surprised some by winning the open women’s marathon in 3:03:17, more than a minute faster than Jigmet Dolma who finished third in the elite category behind Sudha Singh and last year’s winner Jyoti Shankarrao Gawate.
In fact, Prachi Godbole, who hails from Nagpur and is trained by Ravindra Tong, was also faster than Jigmet Dolma.
The results:
Marathon
Men (Elite): 1. Bugatha Srinu 2 hours 14 minutes 58 seconds; 2. Nitendra Singh Rawat 2:18:54; 3. Rashpal Singh 2:18:56.
Men (Open): 1. Nihal Baig 2 hours 31 minutes 33 seconds; 2. Manoj Yadav 2:33:25; 3. Pramod Chahar 2:33:55.
Women (Elite): 1. Sudha Singh 2 hours 43 minutes 41 seconds; 2. Jyoti Shankarrao Gawate 2:58:22; 3. Jigmet Dolma 3:04.51.
Women (Open): 1. Nupur Singh 3 hours 3 minutes 17 seconds; 2. Prachi Raju Godbole 3:03:44; 3. Disket Dolma 3:18:56.
Half Marathon
Men: 1. Amar Singh Devanda 1 hour 13 minutes 58 seconds; 2. Dhananjay Sharma 1:15:33; 3. Sangh Priya Gautam 1:16:35.
Women: 1. Jyoti Chauhan 1 hour 20 minutes 57 seconds; 2. Pooja 1:28:39; 3, Tashi Ladol 1:30:13.
10km
Men: 1. Vivek Pal 41 minutes 17 seconds; 2. SH Deepak 43:09; 3. Vikram Singh 45:36.
Women: 1. Kavita Agarwal 49 minutes 04 seconds; 2. Anjana Sharma 56:36; 3. Amna Ahmed 1:03:05.
Image: Srinu Bugatha finishing the marathon (Photo courtesy: NEB Sports/BVK Sports & Media)
