Kolkata: Indian elite athletes, Nitender Singh Rawat and Kavita Raut won the inaugural Tata Steel Kolkata (TSK) 25K, in the men and women’s categories respectively today. Nitender and Kavita became the first runners to win the TSK 25K crown where Nitender clocked 01:19:39 to win his first title in Kolkata and Kavita stopped the clock at 01:33:39 to top the podium in the women’s category.
Singh had a tough men’s field with Elam Singh and Soji Mathew as fellow runners. The trio ran together till the 19km mark with Nitender and Elam taking the lead ahead of Soji. Nitender then broke away towards the final 500 m to take the gold. Elam Singh who regularly practices in Kolkata at Fort Williams missed the opportunity to win the title by 8 seconds as he finished the race at 01:19:47 with Soji Mathew following to finish his run at 01:20:01.
On winning the inaugural edition, Nitender Singh Rawat, said, “This is the first time I am participating in the 25K. Earlier I had participated in the 21K , so this experience was memorable. My coach Mr. Surinder Singh is my role model, mentor and guide and I would like to follow his footsteps. Next year I will be making the switch to the full marathon category and will prepare myself for the Full 42k in the Mumbai Marathon 2016 with an eye for the 2016 Olympics that year.”
Elam Singh, said, “The experience was remarkable. The water stations were placed properly with good medical facilities and the traffic was also well managed. It was a wonderful feeling.”
The women's race witnessed yet another tough field with Kavita Raut and Sudha Singh both poised favourably to win the debut race. Kavita and Sudha stayed together up until 24km mark. With only 400 meter before the finish line, Kavita Raut out-sprinted Sudha to take the first position with Sudha finishing her race at 01:33:49 to come in 2nd position while Manisha Salunkhe stood 3rd on the podium with a timing of 01:35:20.
Kavita Raut, said, “I was very impressed with the arrangements and credit goes to the organizers. Along with the weather, the crowd and the route stood favourable. I had run for 21K before but this was the first time I ran for 25K, although it was not that difficult to cover extra 4kms. It actually prepared me for the 2016 Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon. Considering the weather, the route and crowd of Mumbai and Kolkata seemed similar.”
I would like to thank the organisers, they played a major role in our road to victory. The Kolkata Police had managed the traffic so well that we did not face any issue while performing. The backup was very good. The crowd was pretty enthusiastic. The experience in Kolkata this time has been really good. I will perform next in Mumbai Marathon, so this prepared me for the next Marathon. As me and Kavita, we both do our training sessions together so her winning and my standing in the second position does not demotivate me as we are almost equals and we share a strong understanding,” said Sudha Singh.
A total of 6,588 plus runners participated in the inaugural edition of the Tata Steel Kolkata 25K across different categories including 857 in the 25K, 1515 in the Open 10K, 3534 in the Ananda Run, 2622 in the Senior Citizen and 419 in Champions with Disability The INR 21,54,000 prize money event, the top three Elite athletes in the 25K category won Rs. 2,50,000, Rs. 1,75,000 , Rs. 1,00,000 respectively. Dividing amateur runners into six segments based on their age – 18 to under 30, 30 to under 40, 40 to under 50, 50 to under 60, 60 to under 70, and 70 and above - TSK Kolkata 25K will also award the top three amateur runners (men and women) in each of the above segments with prizes of Rs. 12,000, 10,000 and 5,000 respectively.
Following are the results:
Indian Athlete Men:
Nitender Singh Rawat (IND) 01:19:39; Elam Singh (IND) 01:19:47; Soji Mathew (IND) 01:20:01; Hari Shankar Sharma (IND) 01:20:35; Vikas Kumar (IND) 01:20:36; Shander Singh (IND) 01:22:17; Javid Iqbal (IND) 01:23:00; Ajay Kumar Patel (IND) 01:24:25; Sanjay Mondal (IND) 01:27:05; Padmanabhan (IND) 01:27:13.
Indian Athlete Women:
Kavita Raut (IND) 01:33:39; Sudha Singh (IND) 01:33:49; Manisha Salunkhe (IND) 01:35:20; Wahida Raheman (IND) 01:37:30; Nilam Rajput (IND) 01:37:42; Rooma Devi (IND) 01:38:51; Monika Raut (IND) 01:38:55; Shyamali Singh (IND) 01:39:37; Kiranjit Kaur (IND) 01:39:40; Sukanya Mall (IND) 01:40:57.
Open 10K (Men):
(45 to u-55 yrs): Idris Mohamed 00:37:04; Ranjit Mahato 00:40:03; Rao Garimella 00:44:52.
(55 to u-65 yrs): Prabhakara Rao Mulagala 00:53:12; Sunil Kumar Sethia 01:01:27; Samar Kanti Das 01:04:36.
(65 to u-75 yrs): Vijay Kumar Jain 01:25:10; G D Agarwal 01:28:51.
Open 10K (Women):
(15 to u-25 yrs): Krishna Haldar 00:41:28; Beli Yesmin 00:42:15; Sonalia Pal 00:52:41.
(25 to u-35 yrs): Pratima Tudu 00:38:25; Shikha Baid 01:00:11; Ashwini Jha 01:00:24.
(35 to u-45 yrs): Modal Bula 00:54:30; Rajashree Mukherjee 01:01:25; Bharathi Sundaram 01:03:31.
Open 25K (35 to u-45 yrs)
Men: Arun Mahato 01:35:03; Prakash Nannaware 01:35:16; Badon Sing Tham 01:38:07
Women: Gargi Chaudhri 02:12:45; Rati Ghose 02:35:18; Minu Chand 02:35:20
Open 25k (45 to u-55 yrs):
Men: Bimal Kumar Mahata 01:47:05; Yogendra Pratap Yadav 01:53:16; Tarun Kumar Sharma 01:56:06.
Women: Nisha Buna 02:34:06; Sumedha Saraogi 03:05:18
Open 25K (55 to u-65 yrs):
Men: Manoranjan Mirdha 01:36:35; Naval Kishor Yadav 01:53:18; Karl Furthmaier 01:59:22.
Open 25K (65 to u-75 yrs): Hariharan B R 03:00:53.
