2014 Wipro Chennai Marathon sees record turnout; Dasari Obulesu and Indresh Dhiraj walk away with top honours

The 10K runners get going at the start point

Dasari Obulesu and Indresh Dhiraj emerged triumphant in the men’s and women’s categories respectively at the 2014 Wipro Chennai Marathon held on Sunday morning.

Obulesu, part of a huge contingent from the Madras Regiment Centre (MRC) in Wellington near Ooty set a scorching pace to finish the marathon race in just two hours, 30 minutes and 29 seconds (02:30:29). M. Jagadheesan came second nine minutes behind Obulesu in a time of 02:39:21 and third place went to Vairavanathan who finished in a time of 02:49:08.

“I am from Ooty and I have come as part of a contingent from (Madras Regiment Centre) MRC, Wellington to take part in this marathon. I have put in a lot of hard work over the years. Weekly long distance running and high altitude training in the Nilgiris has brought out the best in me. I thank my commanding officer who gave me complete freedom during my training sessions.”, said Obulesu.

The top three finishers in the women’s category of the Full Marathon

In the women’s category it was Noida woman and winner from 2012 Indresh Dhiraj who came home in a time of three hours, 39 minutes and 29 seconds (03:39:29) to finish on top making it a third straight podium finish for her at the Chennai Marathon.

"I am from G.B. Nagar in Greater Noida and I have participated in over 100 marathons and have won over 30 of them. I enjoy running the Wipro Chennai Marathon very much. I won here in 2012, came second in 2013 and won again this year. I am very happy”, said Dhiraj.

Mumbaikar Sayuri Dalvi finished second in a time of 03:48:19. Third place went to Shreya Adiraju (04:20:27) who was a fair bit behind the front two who finished with sub-4-hour times.

The main marathon flagged off at a very early 4 AM while the half-marathon and the 10K flagged off at 5.15 AM and 7 AM respectively. The event is run by a group called the Chennai Runners, a huge running community that has been serving as an evangelist for running for over seven years now. While the largest numbers were decidedly in the 10K, the numbers in the half-marathon and marathon too saw an increase over previous years.

Full results:

Men - Full Marathon: