Thousands brave the chill for 25-km run in Kolkata

Athletes Elam Singh and Olympic qualifier Sudha Singh clinched the men’s and women’s title at the Tata Steel Kolkata 25 km marathon on Sunday. 

The trio Sudha Singh, Lalita Babbar and O P Jaisha broke the last year’s record of Kavita Raut. Sudha and Lalita took the lead towards the finish line, left Jaisha few minutes behind. In the last lap of one km, Sudha sprinted towards the finish line and finished it in 1 hour 27 minutes and 31 seconds, winning the women’s crown, while Lalita stood second and finished it off in 1 hour 27 minutes and 47 seconds.

After winning the TSK 25 km title for the first time, Sudha said: “It is better from last year when I was not in practice as I was at home. This time I trained at the camp. I had put equal concentration for each race. This 25K run has benefited us for Mumbai marathon.”

Lalita, who had defeated both Sudha and Jaisha in ADHM 2015 last month, was happy with the runners-up position. 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 race was a practice session before Mumbai Marathon, which will also be a practice session for Rio.” 

The second edition of Kolkata Marathan saw an increase of runners with 8,208 participants taking part in the event. This includes 996 participants in 25 km, 2,859 in open 10 km, more than double than last year, 3,996 in the Ananda Run, 113 in the senior citizen and in the champions with disability 172 people participated. 

Elam Singh, Srinu Bugatha and O Sanaton Singh had tough competition amongst themselves and finally Elam finished first within 1 hour 20 minutes 14 seconds followed by Srinu Bugatha at 1 hour 20 minutes 16 seconds. 

Elam Singh, after winning the Kolkata Marathan, 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.” 

Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi, T V Narendran, MD of Tata Steel and SEA, Sunil Bhaskaran, VP of Corporate Services Tata Steel, Puyush Gupta, VP of Steel (Marketing & Sales) Tata Steel, actors Dev, Neha Dhupia and Rituparna Sengupta were present along with cricketer Yuvraj Singh during the event.