Mumbai : Tanzania’s Alphonce Simbu and Kenya’s Bornes Kitur triumphed at the 14th edition of the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon 2017 on Sunday, winning in 2:09:32 and 2:29:02 respectively to take home first prize cheques of USD$42,000.
It was a close finish for the Indian men at the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon this year with the finalists neck to neck till the 30 km mark. Sprinting across the finish line, Kheta Ram came in first, clinching the title with a timing of 2:19:51. Close on his heels was Bahadur Singh Dhoni who clocked his personal best and came in second with a timing of 2:19:57 and T H Luwang from Manipur who placed third with 2:21:19.
Racing across the finish line for the Indian elite women was Jyoti Gawte from Maharashtra who was confident in her abilities from the start and finished with a timing of 2:50:53. Next across was Shyamali Sing from West Bengal who practiced for only 15 days prior to the race as she wasn’t well but pushed to compete and finished with a timing of 3:08:41. Coming in third was first timer in the elites Jigmet Dolma who broke her personal best to get to a podium finish with a timing of 3:14:38.
The Half Marathon which flagged off from the Worli Seaface promenade saw race favourites Lakshmanan G win the men’s title (1:05:05) and Monika Athare (1:19:13) confidently winning the women’s titles respectively. Tamil Nadu lad Lakshmanan enjoyed the cool weather, and had just returned from a training camp in Bengaluru where he was training since November. For Athare, this is her 5th title this season having won in Bhopal, Delhi, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Vasai-Virar.
Simbu, fifth at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, confirmed his rising status in the world of marathon running by hitting the front with 800 metres to go and sprinting away for victory after a duel over the last five kilometres with Kenyan surprise package Joshua Kipkorir. After a large group of 13 had passed through the halfway point in 1:04:49 the pace stayed steady to 30km, with the predicted finishing time remained close to 2:10:00, and seven men were still in the leading group at that point.
However, Kipkorir almost immediately injected a change of pace and quickly broke up the pack.
By 35km, Simbu was his only remaining rival. Kipkorir continued to push the pace with Simbu resolutely staying tucked behind him all the way, much to the Kenyan´s frustration as he started to periodically zig-zag across the road from 38km in an attempt to encourage Simbu to the fore.
However, with two kilometres to go, Kipkorir started to look visibly tired while the slighter figure of Simbu was noticeably far more relaxed and seemingly just waiting for his moment to strike.
When Simbu finally swung past his rival just inside the final kilometre immediately it was obvious he was going to clinch his first international win since 2012.
