Indian Women runners cried foul over unfair treatment of organisers of the Tata Mumbai Mararthon on Sunday. Nirmaben Thakor and Sonika Parmar weren’t able to contend with their performance.
Nirmaben who defended her crown said, “I targeted a certain timing which I couldn’t achieve. This race should care for Indian athletes also, but we seemingly got differential treatment. The race started late when the sun started coming out and it became hotter as the race progressed. It became too demanding for the body, add to it no one was offering water bottles when we needed the most,”. The Indian athlete came 16th overall in the women’s full marathon with a timing of 2:50:06.
Sonika Parmar came second among the Indian women marathoners and Sonum was third. Parmar was leading the pack by some distance till the 30km mark but couldn’t maintain her running tempo. “I got cramps, the heat got to me. There was no water available and no one to guide the route. I was running all alone. I had competed on December 31 and also on January 12, so there was less recovery time. I need pain-relief sprays to forget pain and push one but unfortunately that wasn’t available. A 4.30 or 5.00 am start in these conditions would have been ideal,” Parmar said.
Indian winners want early start to Mumbai Full Marathon
Anish Thapa had a rather flawless race to finish first among the elite Indian men in the Full Marathon. He missed the course record by a few seconds but his timing of 2:17:23 was impressive considering the hot and humid conditions especially in the second half of the race.
He finished overall seventh among men just behind two-time winner Lemi Berhanu and Man Singh was second among Indian athletes and eighth overall. Gopi Thonakal finished third among the Indian men’s athletes.
However, the race was marred by complaints from the Indian athletes. Men’s podium finishers wanted an early start to withstand weather conditions while female athletes rued scarcity of water bottles, pain-relief sprays and lack of escorts on the route through pace setters and bikers.
“I slowed down towards the end like other athletes as the weather got hotter. It became difficult to push on,” said Anish who was running in tandem with Man Singh but got a considerable lead in the last kilometer but couldn’t push himself more to break the course record.
A visibly disappointed Man Singh also rued humid conditions which prevented him from pushing himself to go for course record. “We had eyes on the course record. But the weather was testing, we had to listen to our body and be restrained. An early start would have been great. It would have reduced our timing and placed us well to qualify for World Championships,” he said.
Gopi who won the race here twice had pinned more hopes on the race but couldn’t get the timing what he wanted. “The weather was hot and the course has hills and down hills. I started getting cramps after the halfway mark. An early start would have given us ideal weather,” 36-year-old Gopi said.
