Suresh, Lalita to lead Indian field at Delhi Half Marathon

New Delhi – Defending champs Suresh Kumar (men’s) and Lalita Babbar (women’s) will lead the Indian field for Airtel Delhi Half Marathon to be held on Sep 30 here.

Kavita Raut, 2007 and 2008 winner, will make a comeback at this year’s event after a gap of three years and will look to win the event and lower her own record.

Suresh and Lalita, the women’s defending champion from the last two editions, will lead the Indian elite field of the event which will be flagged off from the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium.

The organisers announced a bonus of Rs.1 lakh for a new course record.

The men’s course record of 64 minutes was set by Deepchand Saharan in 2009 while the women’s record of 67.12 is held by Kavita Raut, set in 2008.

The men’s field will also feature 2010 winner Irappa D Akki, Soj Mathew, MD Yunus, VL Dangi, Kheta Ram, Ajay Patel, Indrajeet Patel, Ratti Ram Saini, Sandeep Singh Patel, Pritam Bind, Angad Kumar and full marathon specialist Lyngkhoi Bining in the field of 73 elite Indian males.

Among the women, besides Lalita and Kavita, the other fancied names are Sudha Singh, last year’s runner-up Kiran Tiwari, Monica Athare, winner of the World 10K Bangalore.

Also are names like Sukaya Mall, 2009 winner, Pampa Chanda, Priyanka Singh Patel, 2001 Mumbai Marathon winner, and Shastri Devi.