KATHMANDU, Sept 12: Nepal Army players dominated the third edition of the Real Kathmandu Marathon held on Saturday. In men´s marathon, the army took all top ten spots except for the fifth, which went to Arjun Dhakal of the Armed Police Force team. The army also took top two spots in men´s half-marathon while Nepal Police Club (NPC) remained satisfied with the third spot. [break]
Army´s Arjun Basnet, Rajendra Bhandari and Uttam Khatri bagged the top three spots with 2:25:36 hours, 2:28:38 hours and 2:30:02 hours respectively. With the win they will bag cash prizes of US$5,000, $3,000 and $1,500 respectively.
Likewise, Mahendra Shahi, Arjun Prasad Dhakal, Ram Bhandari, Ram Kumar Khatri, Chandra Bahadur Mahato, Rewat Bahadur Dahal and Shyam Parajauli secured fourth to 10th spots respectively.
In the women´s category, Kanchhi Maya Koju of Bhaktapur kept behind Krishneshwari Sintakala and Surya Maya Rai of the APF. The three completed the race in 3:05:43 hours, 3:11:25 hours and 3:13:44 hours respectively securing the top three positions. They will be awarded with a cash prize of US $ 3,000, $2,000 and 1,000 respectively.
“I achieved my target, as I have set to finish the race in 2:25 hours,” Arjun Kumar Basnet, 34, said who had come second in the previous editions of both Real and Kathmandu Marathon.
Arjun, the Beijing Olympian and also the bronze and silver medalist in the 9th and 10th South Asian Games (SAG) who has his best timing of 2:21:03 hours set in the 9th SAG said, “I competed in this race after a year of practice and gap and the competition was also tough.”
Army´s Rajendra Bhandari, who was banned for two year after he failed a doping test during the 10th SAG games in Colombo, Sri Lanka and returned to the marathon last year blamed his thigh pain for his unsatisfactory performance. “I was neck to neck with Arjun until 39 km and sometimes kept him behind, but thereafter there was severe pain in my thigh and I had to stop thrice. I was unable to achieve my target of 2:20 hours which seemed to be ambitious.” Rajendra who had the best timing of 2:20 hours set in Kathmandu marathon last year said, “I was running for position rather than timing.”
Defending champion Uttam Khatri lamented for his timing and said, “I could not do well this time because two months of preparations were too short. Next time I will try my best.”
Kanchhi Maya Koju, 25, made her successful return in long race after being fired from the police team some two years back. She was fired after she went missing from the squad in Japan while participating in the sports events there. “Though I did not have good training I was in the lead from the beginning,” Koju said.
Army´s Letter Singh Khatri (01:11:00) and Raj Kumar Bista (01:12:06) came in the first and second places while Bhumi Raj Rai (01:12: 38) of the NPC remained satisfied with the third position in men´s half marathon.
In women´s half marathon, Brinda Shrestha (1:31:51) and Geeta Khatri of (1:34:53) APF and Hari Devi Rajlawat of Bhaktapur secured the top three places.
In 5-km school men´s category, Prakash Paneru, Jivan BK and Deepak Shrestha clinched top spots respectively while in women´s category, Shakuntala Budhathoki, Anju Musyako and Bimala Bhandari occupied top places respectively.
In 5-km open men´s category, Motilal Chaudhary, Kalyan Baniya and Narendra Bhatta secured top three places and in women´s section Chhaya Khatri, Mira Rai and Sarita Tamang secured top places.
Bharat Bikram Baniya, Krishna Raj Chaudhary and Tek Bahadur Gurung won men´s 3-km wheel chair race and Sonika Dahal, Laxmi Kunwar and Geeta Tumbahamphe won the women´s wheel chair race.
(All photos by Dipesh Shrestha.)
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