Tag: Chennai

Idea Chennai Half Marathon 2009 Results: Kenyans win

It was a familiar story at the Idea Chennai Half Marathon 2009, with Kenyans dominating both the mens and womens divisions. John Wembusa, ranked 42nd in the world, won the mens event while Nelly Jepkurui (ranked 15th) won the womens event.

As per the organizers, about 60,000-70,000 runners took part in the various races on the day, but then, we can always take these statements with a pinch of salt. Rain played a bit of a spoil-sport when it came pouring in between. International marathon runners from Kenya, USA, Singapore and Malaysia also took part in the race.

Event website: www.givelife-chennaimarathon.com
For a change, the arrangements on the race day were reasonably okay as per the local running community members of the Chennai Runners group. Some photos of the event can be seen on picasaweb here. Complete timing results for the event awaited.

Results summary:

International Men:
1. John Wembusa,

2. Daniel Cherviyout,
3. Tewodros Shiferaw.

International Women:
1. Nelly Jepkurui,

2. Rose Kosgei,
3. Ayelu Lamma.

National Men:
1. Deepchand Saharan,

2. Arvind Kumar,
3.Ajay Kumar.

National Women:
1. Panpa Chanda,

2. Sukanya Mall,
3. Rameshwari.

Give Life Chennai Marathon 2009 on Sep 27

Update: Event date changed to Sept 27 from Aug 22. Why? Read the reasons from the organizers below.

” … Givelife Chennai Marathon, scheduled for August 22, has been postponed to September 27. This is to ensure the participation of national-level participants and to avoid date clash with the World Athletic Championship to be held in Berlin between August 15 and 23. Another reason for post- poning the marathon is that many slow runners wanted the race to be held at a season when the temperature is relatively low …”

Wow… the saga continues, actually whenever things of these sort happen, it reminds me of same fantastically lame excuses I have seen over the years, from organizers of the Delhi International Marathon (SMGI), Bangalore Marathon (Crossover), and now this. I must admire the thinking power of the person who has come up with these brilliant excuses. I might ask, can even one athletes name be mentioned who has a conflict between Chennai and Berlin marathons. I dare further, can even one athlete stand up and say he or she wants to run the Chennai marathon who has the credentials of making it to Berlin. As for the weather excuse, I am no expert on the Chennai weather, but that cannot still fool me into believing that the weather in September will cool of so fast so as to delight the “slow runners”. Who are these slow runners by the way, I wonder 🙂 Some of the organizers perhaps who get tired running a few hundred meters?

Original post on the event below:

Just heard about this event today, which is being held on Aug 22, which is also the Chennai Day. This is the 2nd edition of the Chennai half marathon, and is expected to see a record participation of over 2 lakh people (how can anyone manage that many people I wonder, or well, do they actually need to here).

Event website: www.givelife-chennaimarathon.com
Online registrations start: July 18th

As typically goes here, a half marathon event is labeled as a marathon event, since most people don’t even know or care what a real marathon distance is, right? The event is being organised by non profit organisation Tamil Maiyam and Goodwill Communications Ltd, and since it is labeled as an ‘international’ marathon, is expected to see some international runners take part.

Following events are part of the run:

* Half marathon (21.09 km)
* City run (7km)
* Wheelchair run


Route Map: here
(from the War Memorial to the Rajaji Bhavan Complex)

The prize for the half marathon will be Rs. 500,000 for the winner, Rs. 300,000 for the runners-up and Rs. 200,000 for the third place. Total prize money for the event is a huge 27 lakhs.

The event is being timed by Timing Technologies India Pvt Ltd using the Championchip. They also time Mumbai and Delhi as well as Hyderabad marathons (or are intending to do this going ahead).

For the first time for Indian marathons, I noticed online payment using Paypal! Good! To be fair, the entire website is very elegantly designed, unlike the Mumbai and Delhi half marathon websites of past years. Another thing to note – water points promised at every kilometer. Looks like someone is doing the thinking this year.

More details from Chennai 365

Chennai and Auroville marathon 2009 results


Event date: Feb 15th, 2009

It was a tale of two marathons, which by the twist of fate, or by the idiocy of the organizers, fell on the same date, even though when are located so near to each other. To clarify, Auroville marathon was planned months in advance, and as always, Chennai marathon comes out of nowhere just weeks from the run (and not to forget, this is the 7th edition of the event).

Results courtesy: The Hindu

Chennai marathon results (Men):

  1. Shivdhan Singh (Army/Rajasthan)
  2. Bibul Sugariya (Hyderabad) 2:34:08
  3. Nagendra Rao (Army/Chennai) 2:34:48

For the record, a historic 58 persons completed the 42K! So much so for a big city marathon, where 15000+ people were said to be running on the day. Interestingly, the time of the winner is yet to find its place on the web!

Chennai half-marathon results (Women):

  1. Sudha Singh (UP)
  2. Suriya L (Tamil Nadu)
  3. Kamlesh Baghel (Maharasthra)

Chennai half-marathon results (Men):

  1. Ravi Kanth (Karnataka)
  2. Irappa (Tamil Nadu)
  3. BC Thilack (Tamil Nadu)

Complete results at: chennaimarathon.org

Yet to receive details on the Auroville event, still in its infancy in its 2nd year, but nonetheless, all I have heard about is praise for its organizers. It is so popular amongst the Chennai Runners that most of them actually left for Auroville to participate in this run, rather than slug it out in their own backyard in Chennai. There were also big groups from Bangalore and Hyderabad at the run. Here‘s an interview with Chandresh Patel, the man behind the Auroville marathon, done by Runners For Life.

To be fair to the Chennai marathon organizers, I heard that it was reasonably well organized, better than the past. It was also noted that there were no “stone throwing” incident on the runners, unlike last year! Traffic was well marshalled, and the route had regular water stops.

Auroville marathon results:

Complete results here [pdf file, 1.85MB]

Full Marathon:
1. Ashok Nath 3:19:45
2. Madhu Avasarala 3:41:51
3. Ram Sethu 3:45:00

Half Marathon – Men:
1. Rameshwar Chitgire 1:24:30
2. Ramkishan Salunke 1:26:58
3. Matt Barrett 1:27:01

Half Marathon – Women:
1. Sunita Kanna 1:42:01
2. Farah Mahmood 1:44:23
3. Meenakshi Gaekwad 1:46:52

Quarter Marathon:
1. Matthew Lindsay 0:45:04
2. K. Iyyanar 0:50:45
3. Abhijit Baliarsingh 0:51:51

Auroville marathon event reviews from blogworld:

Some of the comments I read were about:
– the wonderful and scenic trail route in between the trees
– wildlife sighting on the route – mongoose, deer, cows (ok that last one is not)
– beautiful music of the insects and birds on the route
– band playing live music on route
– wonderful volunteers at all the pit stops
– well stocked pit stops

A lot of runners did their PR’s here, which speaks a lot about the kind of atmosphere which must have been there.

Bhasker does his 7th marathon in 7 months!
Rohit does a 21K PR
Prakash Francis enjoys the beautiful route while doing the 21K
Venkat has a great run in spite of the injury!
Balu does his bit for the Asha foundation, and enjoys the mongoose trail
Anupama hits the runners high after the run!
Hari does it again, with a 21K PR this time (after his super Singapore feat)
Param flies all the way from Delhi, and makes every bit count!