Source: The Hindu
Men (42.2 km):
1. Binign Lyngkhoi (Army Sports Institute, Pune) 2:21.07
2. Bhairav Singh (M.P.) 2:26.49
3. Neeraj Pal Singh (Army Sports Institute, Hyderabad) 2:27.13
Women (10.5km):
1. Kavit Raut (ONGC) 32.55
2. Preeja Sreedharan (Kerala) 32.58
3. Pampa Chanda (Bengal) 34.28
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):
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 (Men):
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!
As the marathon fever spreads across India, it is not surprising to hear about events happening at places where you least expect. International athletes running a 2:18 marathon in the town of Nagpur in Maharashtra, that’s amazing!
Men: Marathon:
1. Adugnga Tola Gomeda (ETH) 2.18.29
2. Wellay Amare (ETH) 2.18.30
3. Desdary Lucian Hombo (KEN) 2.18.39
Women: Half Marathon:
1. Agnes Karunge Mutane (KEN) 1.13.33
2. Jain Muia (KEN)
3. Kavita Raut (IND)
29 foreign athletes participated in this event. The total prize money for the run was Rs 37 lakh and the event receieved 11,000 entries.
News courtesy PTI
Championchip results (courtesy Championchip UAE)
Note: These are new links after the old ones disappeared.
The top two winners bettered the all-time Mumbai marathon record of 2:12:03, and also the 1978 India all time best of 2:12 (Shivnath Singh, Jalandhar).
IAAF report on the event here.
Winners (source: The Hindu):
Marathon overall: Men:
1. Kenneth Mungara (Ken) 2:11.51;
2. David Tarus (Ken) 2:12:02;
3. John Kelai (Ken) 2:12:23.
Marathon overall: Women:
1. Haille Kebebush (Eth) 2:34:08;
2. Marta Marcos (Eth) 2:34:15;
3. Irne Mogaka (Ken) 2:37:28.
Marathon (Indians): Men:
1. Ram Singh Yadav (11th overall) 2:18:03;
2. Deep Chand Saharan (21st overall) 2:26:01;
3. Narender Singh (23rd overall) 2:26:41.
Marathon (Indians): Women:
1. L Aruna Devi (22nd overall) 3:09:59;
2. Indresh Dhiraj (25th overall) 3:14:13,
3. Leelamma Alphanso (26th overall) 3:16:26.
Half-Marathon: Men:
1. Surender Singh (Ind) 1:06:09;
2. Santosh Kumar (Ind) 1:08:08;
3. B.C. Tilak (Ind) 1:08:35.
Half-Marathon: Women:
1. Kavita Raut (Ind) 1:20:58;
2. Preethi Rao (Ind) 1:21.23;
3. Vaishali Chatare (Ind) 1:26:45
Some early reviews of the event from the blogger community:
Shumit runs a PR in the Half
Neuromancer does a 42K PR
Dave writes about his interesting experiences as a volunteer (and some videos too)
Rohit does a PR in his 3rd Half marathon
Gargoyle follows the run from a distance (and the award for most beautiful smile!)
Subramanyam runs his longest 21K
Magic runs her first 5K
Pravin does a 5K (and comments on lackluster organization)
News coverage and results: Bangalore Mirror
Marathon(Men)
(1) Yaread Hasku (Ethiopia) 3.19 mins
(2) Vikas Kumar Kasana (India) 3.43 mins
(3) Honda Yasuhiro (Japan) 4.06 mins
Marathon(Women)
(1) Shilpa Narayan (India) 4.15 mins
(2) Dr. Amrita Mitra (India) 4.27 mins
Half Marathon(Men)
(1) Ermiyas Negatu (Ethiopia) 1.05 mins
(2) P Nagendra Rao (India) 1.07 mins
(3) Lidtu Tekelu (Ethiopia) 1.08 mins
Half Marathon(Women)
(1) Elsa Sisay (Ethiopia) 1.25 mins
(2) Yamini Upadhyay (India) 2.05 mins
(3) Meher D’Mello (India) 2.09 mins
Strangely, with TOI as the title partner for the event, there seems to be no news on the run even in the Bangalore TOI edition for Jan 12th. I checked the ePaper, and nothing there. I doubt if the results would actually appear on the official website http://www.toimidnightmarathon.in/ anytime soon in the future.
