Sport - Sports : General

Santhosh clinches title

— Photo: R. Ragu

WINNING SMILES: Preeja Sridharan (left) and Santhosh Kumar present a happy picture after winning their respective events in the Marg-Chennai Marathon on Sunday.

CHENNAI: There wasn’t space to breathe leave alone run. Such was the response — the death of an Anna University student notwithstanding — to the Marg-Chennai Marathon here on Sunday that the chief guest, Mr. M.S. Gill, Union Minister for Sports, later called it “a river of people.”

Participants numbering more than 50,000 thronged the Island Ground for the run held in different categories. But Fr. Jegath Gasper Raj, one of the organisers of the Marathon said, “conservatively according to our estimate, the number is 1,70,000 plus.”

The surprising part of the half-marathon emerged in the form of Santhosh Kumar of Western Railways. The 24-year-old, in a sudden burst in the last two kilometres, overtook favourite Surendar Singh of the Army to bag the first prize and the winner’s purse of Rs. 10 lakh.

The two were neck and neck for the major part of the race; Surendar was even leading early on in the race.

“I feel really happy to win as this is the first time I am taking part in the event in Chennai. I practiced for 20 days in Bangalore and it paid off,” said Santosh, whose best finish has been a first place finish in the 10,000m at the South Asian championship in Kochi this year.

Born in Benares, Santosh has lived most of his life in Bangalore.

A specialist in 10,000m, Santosh said he’ll take part in the Delhi-Hutch Marathon next.

Surendar didn’t feel upset at having been pipped by his friend.

“I am not disappointed. This is my first event after the Beijing Games (he finished 26th in the 10,000m final in the Olympics). Anyways, he ran a better race,” said the 29-year-old.

There was no surprise in the women’s half marathon. Kerala’s Preeja Sreedharan, a participant in 10,000m final in the Beijing Olympics, edged past Preethi L. Rao. In an edge of the seat thriller, Preeja and Preethi tried their best to outrun each other on the home stretch but it was Preeja who touched the ribbon first.

“It feels good, what with the fabulous prize money,” smiled Preeja. “Now my focus will be on the Commonwealth Games in Delhi in 2010.”

The second and third prize winners in both men and women’s sections received Rs. 5 lakh and 3 lakh respectively.

The results: Half marathon (21.097km): Men: 1. Santhosh Kumar (1 hr.04min 3sec), 2. Surendar Singh (1:04.5), 3. Sandeep Kumar (1:05.01). Women: 1. Preeja Sreedharan (1:18.30), 2. Preethi L Rao (1:18.32), 3. Kavita Raut (1:19.20).

Half marathon: Tamil Nadu: Men: 1. P. Nagendra Rao, 2. G. Lokaraja, 3. Padmanabhan; Women: 1. M. Sudha, 2. Shanthi, 3. Maheswari.

Masters Run: 1. Arokiam, 2. Vivekanandan, 3. Shekaran.

Wheel Chair: Category I: 1. Vijay Sarathi, 2. Madhu Kumar, 3. Syed Abubhu; Category II: 1. Manikandan, 2. Satya Moorthy, 3. Rajiv Ranjan.

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