Army’s Srinu Bugatha braves odds to win SAAF marathon in Dhaka, earns ticket to Asian Games

Army’s Srinu Bugatha braved the odds to win the South Asian Athletics Federation (SAAF) men’s marathon title in Bangladesh on Monday. He thus became the first Indian runner to have qualified for both the Commonwealth and Asian Games.

The 27-year-old clocked 2 hours 16 minutes 26 seconds to win gold in the SAAF marathon race held in Dhaka. Last year, Bugatha clocked 2:14:59 seconds in the New Delhi marathon, which was his personal best.

Bugatha’s performance in Dhaka was better than the men’s Commonwealth Games marathon qualifying time of 2:18:40 seconds as well as the Hangzhou Asian Games marathon qualification standard of 2:18:48 seconds.

According to Bugatha’s coach KC Ramu, the Army runner is now eligible to compete in both Commonwealth and Asian Games marathon events. But he wants his ward to compete at the Hangzhou Asian Games in September only.

"Firstly, Bugatha will get more time to prepare for the Asian Games," he told Sportskeeda over the phone from Dhaka. "Secondly, he has a better chance of a podium finish at the Asian Games."

Ramu also wants Bugatha to gain some international marathon experience ahead of the Asian Games.

“Before he (Bugatha) competes at the Asian Games in September, we want him (Bugatha) to have experience of racing a major marathon race like London in April,” he said. “The experience of racing with the world’s best runners during the London marathon will certainly pay off when the Indian runner competes at the Asian Games.”

Earlier in December last year, Bugatha missed the Valencia marathon in Spain as he was denied a visa.

The Army coach believes Bugatha could have done better in Dhaka but had to spend three days in quarantine before competing, which affected his performance.

“Due to pandemic all the athletes had to undergo three days of quarantine and had to furnish negative COVID-19 report on arrival," he said. "The athletes were given single room accommodation. Since the athletes weren’t allowed to go out, they did a warmup on the rooftop of the hotel."

The 7km circuit for the marathon race was a challenging course, feels the Indian coach.

“The marathon route was challenging as there was a long flyover," he explained. "Had the route been flat, Bugatha could have done better."

Indian runners won the top four spots, with Bugatha winning pole position. Arjun Prathan (2:20:06), BA Bopaiah (2:20:14) and Bahadur Singh Dhouni (2:23:33) finished in that order.

India’s Arati Dattatray Patil was the winner of the women’s SAAF marathon title, clocking 2:53:28 seconds. Arati's gold-winning time was nearly 15 minutes slower than the Commonwealth or the Asian Games qualifying time.

Jyoti Gawate, another Indian runner in the field, finished second with a time of 2:54:14.

Besides the SAAF marathon, a half marathon and an elite international marathon race were also organized by the Bangladesh government.