New Delhi, Feb 11 (IANS) More than 6,000 runners will be seen in action in the annual Mawana Sugars Indian Open Marathon to be held here February 19.
The Indian Open, the only marathon to be accorded the status of National Championship, will be flagged off from and also finish at the iconic city landmark of India Gate.
The Mawana Sugars Indian Open Marathon is open only to Indian nationals and also serves as one of the qualification races for the selection of athletes for the London Olympics Marathon. The men's 'A' qualification for men is 2:15 and 2:18 is the 'B' standard and for women the standards are 2:38 for 'A' and 2:43 for women.
"We are confident that at least a couple of runners will achieve the Olympic qualification standards," said M.L Dogra, director of the Athletic Federation of India, under whose aegis the marathon is being held.
The marathon will be run through some of the most scenic parts of the central capital, including the Rajpath, Parliament Street and the Raisina Road before it winds its way back to the India Gate for the finish.
The race will be run in a loop measuring 10.5 kilometres, which will run four times for the full marathon and twice for the half-marathon.
While the defending men's champion, Deepchand Sharan will not be running on account of injury, the 2008 champion Binning Lyngkhoi has entered the event.
"Binning is among the favourites and there will be a host of runners from the army, which has once again sent a big contingent," said Siddharth Shriram, chairman, Mawana Sugars Limited.
Among the leading runners entered this year are Ranjit Singh, Elam Singh, P.S Meena, Shamsher Antil and Pritam Singh.
The women's defending champion, Shastri Devi will, however, be at the start line to try and keep her title and win the Rs.2.5 lakh prize money. Other leading women runners will be M. Sudha, Waheeda and Suryakamal.
Asha Aggarwal and V. Satyabhama, two marathon stars of the yesteryear, but still very fit and in training, will be running in the veterans section.
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