Challenging task for India’s elite marathon runners as they aim to qualify for Commonwealth and Asian Games

India’s elite athletes will test their speed and endurance on the streets of New Delhi on Sunday as they aim to qualify for the Commonwealth and Asian Games. The National Marathon, postponed earlier in February due to the pandemic, will finally see India’s best distance runners sweat it out to earn a berth for the upcoming major multi-disciplinary games.

Local weather conditions at this time of the year will play an important role in achieving good results, as per a senior athletics coach.

“The elite marathon race will start as early as 4am on Sunday but Delhi’s warm and humid weather in March could be taxing,” the coach told Sportskeeda. “The weather would be okay at the start, but as the race progresses it will get warm and humid.”

The main focus during Sunday’s marathon will be on half-a-dozen Army distance runners from Pune.

Nitendra Singh Rawat, the Rio Olympian from Kumaon Regiment, will also be one to watch. Rawat has been training in the high-altitude Almora district of Ranikhet for the past two years. Sunday's race will be Rawat’s first this season since he finished 22nd at the 2021 Boston Marathon held in October.

Although the men’s race is expected to be keenly contested, the field in the women’s group is depleted.

“There are just four or five good runners in the elite group,” one of the female athletes said.

While the men’s marathon qualifying standard for the Birmingham Commonwealth Games is 2:18:40 seconds, the qualification time in the women’s category is 2:38:19.

The Asian Games marathon qualification standard for male athletes is 2:18:48 while qualification time in the women’s marathon is 2:39:28.

Earlier in January this year, Army’s Srinu Bugatha became the first Indian marathon runner to qualify for both the Commonwealth and Asian Games at the South Asian Athletics Federation (SAAF) marathon held in Bangladesh.

Bugatha’s gold-medal winning time of two hours, 16 minutes and 26 seconds was better than the Asian Games and Commonwealth Games qualifying standards. Bugatha's personal best, meanwhile, was 2:14:59 seconds, clocked at the National Marathon last year.

“Since Bugatha’s main focus is to improve his performance at the Asian Games in September, he will not compete on Sunday,” the Army coach said.