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Kolkata, 20 December 2015: The Olympic Trio of OP Jaisha, Sudha Singh and Lalita Babar did well at the marathon ahead of Rio 2016, breaking the course record by a big margin as more than 8,208 runners took to the streets in on a cold December morning.
Indian elite athletes Elam Singh and Olympic qualifier Sudha Singh clinched the men’s and women’s title at Tata Steel Kolkata 25K today at Red Road in the City of Joy, Kolkata on Sunday. The trio of Sudha Singh, Lalita Babar and O P Jaisha smashed the course record by a huge margin, which was first set by Kavita Raut at 1:33:39 in the first edition of TSK 25K last year.
During the last few months, the Olympic trio have been practicing together and today worked together as a group to maintain their pace. After the 23-kilometre mark, Singh and Babar took the lead towards the finish line, leaving Jaisha trailing a few minutes behind.
Asked about her performance and winning the TSK 25K title for the first time, Singh said “It is better from last year as last year I was not in practice as I was at home. This time I trained at the camp”.
“I ran a good race, the last 2 kms we had our cooling period. We have put equal concentration for each race. We have been practicing consistently and this was like a practice session for me,” she said.
In addition to the prize money of Rs 2,50,000, she also received a bonus of Rs 50,000.
The second edition of TSK 25K saw a whopping increase in the number of serious runners, taking the total number of participants to 8,208.
996 runners participated in the 25K, 2859 in Open 10K, which was more than double the number of participants last year, 3996 in the Ananda Run, 113 in the Senior Citizen and 172 in the Champions with Disabilities category.
Babar, who defeated both Singh and Jaisha at the Airtel Delhi Half Marathon 2015 last month, was happy with the runners-up position with a time of 01:27:47 in spite of a knee injury. When asked about missing the title by a few seconds, she said “I have had knee pain which slowed me down after 10 Kms.
It is difficult to run back to back races with a gap of less than 20 days in between. This 25K run is a practice session before Mumbai Marathon and Mumbai Marathon will be a practice session for me for Rio. After the marathon I will concentrate on my steeplechase performance.”
“I am not upset with my knee pain. We are in sports where anyone can face injury. No sport is injury free,” she added.
Singh, Srinu Bugatha and O Sanaton Singh had tough competition amongst themselves. All three ran neck to neck through-out the race and it was finally Elam who finished 1st clocking 01:20:14 followed by Srinu Bugatha at 01:20:16, missing out on the title by mere two seconds. Title favourite O Sanaton Singh clocked 01:20:23 to finish in third.
Elam Singh, runner-up at theTSK 25k 2014 and eyeing a Rio Olympic qualification said, “I am feeling proud and satisfied with the performance as I won the title this year which was missed last year by few seconds.”
When he was asked about his future plans he said, “I am aiming to win the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon 2016 in January as that timing will decide the Olympic entrance and want to finish the race before qualifying time.”
Srinu Bugatha, runner-up of TSK 25K 2015 men’s category said “It was a great experience for me running with such experienced runners. You get to learn from them.”
To provide the TSK 25K runners an enhanced running experience, number of facilities and initiatives were undertaken which included PUMA Warm-up Zone, Volini recovery zone , post event refreshments, Finishers medal among others. The TSK 25 was ignited with a very special warm up session hosted by PUMA with -Cricketer Yuvraj Singh, Marathon Veteran Neha Dhupia and running expert Shayamal Vallabhjee.
Full Results:
Indian Elite Men:
Elam Singh (IND) 01:20:14;
Srinu Bugatha (IND) 01:20:16;
O Sanaton Singh (IND) 01:20:23;
Berendra Kumar (IND) 01:20:27;
Vikas Kumar (IND) 01:20:34;
Suleman (IND) 01:22:42;
Dhanwant Prahlad (IND) 01:23:46.
Indian Elite Women:
Sudha Singh (IND) 01:27:31 (NCR);
Lalita Babar (IND) 01:27:41 (NCR);
O P Jaisha (IND) 01:28:05;
Seema (IND) 01:38:31;
Sindhu Yadav (IND) 01:40:32;
Amandeep Kaur (IND) 01:48:39;
Anisha Devi (IND) 01:50:13.
Police Cup:
Winner: Team 5: (Sandip Datta & Toyasin Molla) 00:38:54.
1st Runner up: Team 12 (SK Sukchand & Md Wazed Ali) 00:40:50.
2nd Runner up: Team 15 (Dipankar Mandal & Sagar Mukhiya) 00:41:45.
25K Amateur results:
Women (35 yrs to u–40 yrs) : Shailja Sridhar 02:01:29; Sonalia Pal 02:17:43; Piyali Dolui 02:32:27
Women (40 to u-45 yrs): Bula Mondal 02:29:28; Sarita Chowdhury 02:53:32
Men (45yrs to u-50 yrs): Satyabrata Mallik 01:38:56; Mohamed Idris 01:39:01; Bikhyat Deuri 01:46:29
Women (45yrs to u-50 yrs): Sumedha Sarogi 02:58:23; Bundu Panchal 02:58:28.
Men (50yrs to u-55 yrs): Ranjit Mahato 01:42:58; Tarun Kumar Sharma 01:58:21; Ravinder Singh Rajput 02:10:05
Women (50 yrs to u-55 yrs): Niessha Bubna 02:40:52, Premlata Agrawal 03:21:48, Sukla Roy 03:43:15
Men (55 yrs to u-60 years): Karl Furthmaier 01:58:08, Mohinder Virk 02:22:26, Anant Anantharam 02:28:17.
Women (55 yrs to u-60 yrs): ILa Dutta Singh 02:54:03
Men (60 yrs to u-65 yrs): Sabhajeet Yadav 01:50:44, Ram Avtar 02:03:30, Ashutosh Roy 02:12:11.
Men (65 yrs and above) Navalkishor Yadav 01:49:46, Mahadev Samjiskar 02:30:34, Arun Kumar Singh 02:33:25.
Men (60 yrs to u-65 yrs): Sabhajeet Yadav 01:50:44, Ram Avtar 02:03:30, Ashutosh Roy 02:12:11.
10K Amateur results:
Men (15yrs to u-25 yrs): Sujith Subramaniyam 00:30:58; Saurabh Singh 00:32:20; Vijay Kumar Bedia 00:32:21
Women (15yrs to u-25 yrs): Puja Mondal 00:39:53; Sahanara Khatoon 00:39:55; Basanti Ghosh 00:43:20
Men (25yrs to u-35 yrs): Sushil Chandra 00:33:58; Biraj Kongari 00:34:20; Sahadat Ali 00:34:59
Women (25yrs to u-35 yrs): Nupur Tikmany 00:54:12; Harsha Pandey 00:59:22; Vatsala Singhal 01:00:00
Men (35 to u- 45 yrs) Sanjay Dasila 00:36:15; Prithwish Banerjee 00:39:50; Ibrahim Mozoouz 00:40:41
Women (35 to u-45 yrs): Fulam Khatun 00:40:20; Jayanti Thapliyal 00:43:57; Anuradha Dutt 00:53:58
Men (45 to u-55 years): Dinesh Kumar 00:36:18; Awatar Singh 00:42:37; Azvind Kumer Mirhra 00:42:39
Women (45 to u-55 years) :Pooja Goenka 01:07:33; Shalini Karnani 01:08:05; Gita Balakrishnan 01:12:42
Men (55 to u- 65 years): Manvir Shah 00:42:42; Somnath Sengupta 00:52:04; Mani Kumar Sarkar 00:52:13
Women (55yrs to u- 65 yrs): Indira Anklesaria 01:00:12.
Men (65 yrs to above): Dulal Ahiri 00:54:17; Gourav Anthoney 01:13:19; Goverdhan Das Agarwal 01:23:01
Jabong Run in Costume:
Winner: Shrimad Ramchandra Love & Care
(Runner up): Team Cry-Ensuring Child Rights Get Healthy & Give Healthy
