To Beijing via Mumbai

The Indian long distance runners aim to qualify for Olympics with a good showing in Sunday’s event

MUMBAI: The Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon is more than just another race for the India’s top two marathoners Lyngkhoi Binning and Ram Singh Yadav. It holds their ticket to the Beijing Olympics this year.

The qualifying time for the marathon, traditionally the last event at the Olympics, is 2:18:20 seconds. And both are hoping to clock within that time to qualify for Beijing. Binning clocked the fastest national timing last year at 2:17: 53 in Guwahati on February 15. Ram Singh Yadav, the national winner here at the Mumbai Marathon last year, has a personal best of 2:18:20 seconds and last year had the best timing of 2: 18:22 seconds.

“I have been training at the Army Sports Institute in Pune for the last few months but preparing for this event for the last one year. I am hoping to make the Olympics cut off,”
said Binning.

Yadav, who started running soon after joining the army, says this year his aim is not to finish top among the Indian men but compete for a medal in the overall category.

“I have been training very hard for this marathon. We have been preparing for the last six seven months, in Pune and various other places. I took part in the Singapore marathon as well. So I am hoping to do well here,” said Yadav.

The 26-year-old Army man said that to acclimatise with the weather here, the heat and the humidity, he has been training in the afternoons, which should help him on Sunday.

“The afternoon training sessions have been good. I want to win a medal this time. I am not thinking too much about finishing topmost among Indian athletes.”

Divulging his strategy, he said, “I am going to stay with the Kenyan athletes right from the start of the race. I tried that last year even, but later they pulled away and I couldn’t manage to keep up. This year I feel more confident and hopefully stick with them throughout the race.”

There are 1000 Indian participants (men and women) in the full marathon category but a medal chance looks unlikely. In the men’s section Kenya’s Johan Kelai is expected to hit the tape first while in the women’s China’s Xin Zhang and Ethiopia Mulu Seboka Seyfu are the title favourites.

There are 300 foreign athletes participating in the event.

The races will be held in five categories — half marathon (21.097 km), marathon (42.195 km), wheelchair event ( 3.5 km), senior citizen’s run (5 km) and dream run (7 km).