Best to feature in 2nd Cochin International Half Marathon

Defending Indian men's champ G Lakshmanan

Kochi , December 2nd, 2014:The 2nd edition of the Muthoot Finance Cochin International Half Marathon will see the return of Indian defending champions G Lakshmanan and L Surya among the men and women, who will have to contend with a super strong field if they hope to retain their crowns when the event is flagged off from Marine Drive on Sunday, December 7, 2014.

Impressed by the organization of the event and the course, the Athletic Federation of India is using the Cochin International Half Marathon as a preparatory road race event for the Olympic Games for National campers O P Jaisha and Lalita Babbar. Dr. Nikolai Snesarev, the National coach and massage therapist Anzhelia Snesarev will be accompanying these two athletes to the event to monitor their performance.

While the Indians can also vie for the overall prize money, there is also a separate prize fund for Indian for the first ten places, with the winners standing to gain Rs 2 lakhs each. There is a Rs 1 lakh bonus for the men, if anyone breaks the course record, and a Rs 50,000 time bonus for finishing below 65 minutes, while there is a time bonus of Rs 1 lakh for any woman athlete who finishes below 78 minutes.

G Lakshmanan, who scorched the streets of Kochi last year, winning in a time of 64.37 minutes, will be looking to repeat his feat, but he will have to contend the top three finishers of the recently concluded Delhi Half Marathon, Suresh Kumar Patel, Nitender Singh Rawat and Kheta Ram, who was runner up last year. Suresh Kumar clocked his personal best of 64.38, while Nitender clocked 64.54, followed by Kheta Ram in 64.56. It will be an interesting battle on Sunday as these four athletes battle it out for the top spot. Running alongside some of the leading Kenyan and Ethiopian athletes should also act as a boost.

Besides these four, the men’s field will also comprise last year’s third place finisher Shoji Mathew, National 10000m champion T Gopi, Indrajeet Patel, winner of the half marathon in Mumbai, and names like B C Tilak and Ajay Kumar Patel, to name a few.

Indian women's defnding champ L Surya

Among the women, champion L Surya will have to contend with National campers O P Jaisha and Lalita Babbar and a resurgent Preeja Sreedharan, who proved the fire to win still burns bright, when she demolished the field to win the Delhi Half. Preeja, who failed to win in front of her home crowd last year, will hope to carry her good form in Kochi on Sunday.

Indian women's defnding champ L Surya

The others in the fray include names like M Sudha, Seema, Monica Raut, Rohini Raut, Vijayamala Patil, Neelam Rajput and Supriya Patil, to name a few.

A total of 30 male and 20 female athletes will feature in the Indian elite list.