Mumbai Marathon: Chill adds to thrill

An unusually ruffled Hugh Jones left no stone unturned in persuading BC Tilak to rush towards the finish line.

The race director, who won the London Marathon back in 1982, yelled at the top of his voice to ensure the runner from Coorg didn’t slow down.

The Army Sports Institute (ASI) product, who was a good 50 metres ahead of chief rival Soji Mathew, obliged. His dash towards victory was more purposeful and the end result gratified both parties.

Jones’s ‘whip’ and Tilak’s subsequent ‘gallop’ set the tone for a pulsating Sunday at the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon.

First things first: Tilak clocked 1:04.45, thereby smashing the half-marathon course record of 1:05.51 with ridiculous ease. Realistically speaking, it was Jones’s ‘hysteria’ that helped Tilak register such an impressive timing.

“I have never experienced a cooler race day in Mumbai. We will have a new course record in the full marathon too,” the 56-year-old declared, shortly before the day’s biggest race got under way at 7.40 am.

And course records we had — both in the men’s and women’s categories — as the Ethiopians relished the lovely weather, the warmth of thousands of Mumbaikars on either side of the road, the refreshing sea breeze, et al, to hit most past records for a six.

What’s more, both fields saw gripping contests for the top two slots.

While Addis Ababa resident Girima Assefa (2:09.54) finished exactly three seconds ahead of compatriot Botor Segaye Wolde, Koren Yal, also from Ethiopia, managed to literally nose ahead of countrywoman Merima Mohammed (2:26.57) by a solitary second. Whoever said marathons can’t have photo finishes!

Assefa broke off the pack with two kilometres to go and launched an assault towards the finish line. Wolde and Kenyan Patrick Muriuki — who finished third — were close but not close enough.

In the process, Assefa — and the other two — erased Kenneth Mugara’s record timing of 2:11.51, set in 2009. Similarly, Yal, Mohammed and Elfenesh Alemu, of, Ethiopia, easily bettered Mulu Seboka’s 2:30.04, set in 2008.

Amidst all this, India’s ‘elite’ men managed to come up with below-par performances on a day where they could have made bold statements. Binning Lyngkhoi, Angad Kumar and Ram Singh Yadav came nowhere near

the personal bests but still managed to triumph in the Indian category. The ASI trio managed timings of 2:21.16, 2:24.32 and 2:25.33 respectively.

In the women’s category, Jyoti Gawate (3:05.30, overall 16th), Shastri Devi (3:08.15) and M Sudha (3:10.52) took the podium.

Meanwhile, Yadav, who holds the Indian record (2:18.03 set in 2009), was struggling with a hamstring injury but his mates had no business to register such poor timings.

While champion Assefa said he enjoyed the pleasant weather, Yal said she was lucky to have won by the thinnest of margins. “She plans to buy a house and a car, a Hummer, she says,” an interpreter said, inviting roars of laughter. For the record, the duo will take home $36,000 each.

India’s Binning, who pocketed $6,500 for defending his title, plans to help his brother purchase a few machines. “My brother is a mechanic. This money will help him. I will invest the rest in our farms. We produce rice and potatoes back home,” the Meghalaya-born athlete said.

Cultivating onions wouldn’t be a bad idea either.