Elam Singh and Lalita Babbar among top Indians to feature in SCMM 2013

At the meet & greet of the Indian Elite Athletes of the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon 2013 (L to R), Sunita Godhara (Former Marathon Runner & Indian Athlete Co-coordinator), Karan Singh, Sanaton Singh, Women Athlete Monika Athare, Elam Singh, Ashish Singh, Nitendra Singh and Arvind Yadav.

Mumbai - The tenth edition of the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon has an impressive field of over a hundred Indian men and women in the full and the half marathon category.

Among the ones present today at the press conference were runner-up of last year’s marathon Elam Singh, Karan Singh, B C Tilak, Sanaton Singh, Ashish Singh and Monika Athare.

Elam Singh, who clocked 2:18:27 last year, is focusing on improving his personal best this time around. “I have been training hard and I think I have a good chance to win.”

B C Tilak, winner of the 2011 Half Marathon, is for the first time attempting to run the Full Marathon this year. Karan Singh, bronze, medallist at the Allahabad Marathon in 2012 with 2:24:00, hopes to enjoy his first Marathon in the city.

The Half Marathon field will see the return of defending champion Soji Mathew, and he will have a fight on his hands from the likes of M D Yunus, V L Dangi, Kheta Ram, Man Singh, Budha Ram and Laxman Singh. All these are seasoned 10km runners with personal bests of 30 minutes and below, and have also run the half marathon.

Leading the women’s field is Monika Athare, who has many feathers in her cap. The winner of the 2012 Overall Women at the TCS World 10K and gold medallist at TCS World 10k is looking forward to give her best shot this year at the Mumbai Marathon.

She said: “This is my first year in the Mumbai Marathon and I’m very excited to be running alongside leading athletes Lalita Babar, Sudha Singh and Kavity Raut. I’m sure it will be a learning experience as I think the Mumbai Marathon is a big platform for me to put my best foot forward.”

The notable names among the full marathon women are defending champion Lalita Babbar, last year’s runner-up Kiran Tiwari, besides Shastri Devi, Bhagwati, Anisa Devi and M Sudha.

The Indians have an extra incentive of Rs 1 lakh for a new course record. The men’s and women’s full marathon winners stand to gain Rs 4.5 lakh each, while the men’s and women’s half marathon winners will win USD 2000 each.