Mumbai : Defending champion Neeraj Pal is all charged up and set to retain his title in the men’s full marathon of the 5th Vasai Virar Mayor’s Marathon to be run on Sunday, November 22, 2015. The Hyderabad-based Neeraj Pal of the Army Sports Institute, Pune, who produced a strong, disciplined effort last year to complete the race in first place with a time of 2:22.38 will once again be challenged by last year’s runner-up and teammate Prahlad Sahai Meena whose has a personal best time of 2:21.29 sec at the Kolkatta full marathon 2014 and Girish Chandra Tiwari (Air Force) who had finished in third place.
However, the trio could expect to encounter a strong challenge from Army youngster Kheta Ram, who had finished second in the half marathon last year, and will be making his maiden venture in the full marathon. He is expected to give the fancied runners a run for the money. Ram has been shown plenty of promise in the shorter half marathons with a personal best time of an impressive 1:04.49 secs.
Balliappa AB (PB 1:06.23) will be one the favourite to claim the top honours in the men’s half marathon. He had finished in 4th place in the SCMM 2014 and expected to maintain the momentum in this rcae. Amrutraj Chavan, Shahendra Singh and Man Singh are the others who stake a claim to win the title. In the women’s half marathon, Kiranjeet Kaur of Punjab and BSF, Monika Raut and Rohin Raut, both from Maharashtra and Kiran Sahadev of Meerut, UP will be the main contenders to win he title. The winner of the Full Marathon for men will stand to gain Rs 2.50 lakh, an increase of Rs 50,000 over last year, while the male and female winners of the Half Marathon will take home Rs 1.25 lakh each, an increase of Rs 25,000 over last year. There is an increase in the prize money for amateur runners as well in the different age groups.
Schedule, start times Full Marathon – 42 km
(Men & Amateur Women): Start 6.00 am from New Viva College, Virar.
Half Marathon – 21 km(Men & Women): Start 6.30 am from Panchayat Committee, Vasai (West).
11 km Run (Men & Women): Start 6.45 am from New Viva College, Virar.
