Stage set for Mawana Sugars Indian Open Marathon

New Delhi: The stage is set for 23rd edition of the Mawana Sugars Indian Open Marathon which has attracted a record entry of almost 9,000 runners for the race to be held on February 19. The number of registered runners last year was 6,000.

The Indian Open marathon is the only marathon to 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.

The favourites Binning Lyngkhoi, the 2008 champion, and Elam Singh of Indian Army have already arrived in Delhi to get acclimatized to the conditions, which are reckoned to be perfect.

Binning and Elam will be challenged hard by Ranjit Singh, PS Meena, Shamsher Antil and Pritam Singh. The women’s defending champion, Shastri Devi, is also here.

Both sections have on offer Rs. 2.5 lakhs each, with both sections getting an identical same winner’s cheque. 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.

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.

The Delhi Traffic Police will be providing traffic arrangements. All rules and regulations in full are available at the time of registration with the form.