Disappointed at the failure of his runners to attain the Commonwealth Games qualifying mark of 2 hours and 19 minutes at the Mumbai Marathon today, army coach KS Mathew urged the Athletics Federation of India to space out the number of such events in the country.
"Our runners tried hard but the hot and humid conditions affected their performance. But the bright spot is that both Binning Lyngkhoi and Ram Singh Yadav finished overall 11th and 12th from a field in which so many Kenyans and Ethiopians took part," he said after the gruelling race.
Mathew pointed out that the major Indian marathons, starting with the Pune event in November last, are held in a three to four-month period and wanted them spread out more.
"After this are the Nagpur and Chandigarh marathons, both on January 31. After those there's the Delhi marathon on February 7 while the Chennai and Kolkata marathons are on the same day, February 14," Mathew said.
"Our organisations, federations and sponsors have to think deep over this. I don't want to comment any more as I'm a serving army man," the Kerala-born coach said.
Shillong-born Lyngkhoi (2:20:12) narrowly missed attaining the qualifying standard set for October 3-14 event in Delhi, while three-time best Indian finisher in the event and his room mate and training partner Yadav clocked 2:21:02 to finish just behind him.
A total of 14 Kenyan and 13 Ethiopian elite athletes took part in the 42.195-km race that began and ended at the Chhattrapati Shivaji Terminus in South Mumbai after taking the runners from Worli to Bandra and back over the 5.6-km long newly constructed Rajiv Gandhi Sea Link.
Both Lyngkhoi and Yadav, apart from another Pune-based Army Sports Institute runner Angad Kumar (19th overall and 5th among Indians in 2:24:03), had aimed to clock 2:17 on the eve of the race but failed in their bid.
The army coach also pointed out that barring the Pune and Mumbai events, which are recognised by the International athletics body IAAF, the others did not have the tag.
"We had sent Ram Singh Yadav to take part in the Gold Coast Marathon in Australia over the last two years. Now I don't know how our runners can qualify for the CWG," he wondered.
