MUMBAI: African domination continued at the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon as Kenya's Laban Moiben and Ethiopian Netsanet Abeyo bagged the top honours in men's and women's categories in the ninth edition on Sunday.
Among the Indians, veteran long distance runner Ram Singh Yadav booked his berth for the London Olympics.
Moiben, whose previous best timing in a marathon was 2:09:44 -- set in Ottawa in May 2010 -- won the race in a photo finish as he completed the 42-km race in 2:10:48.
Ethiopian Raji Assefa also clocked 2:10:48 but was adjudged second after photo finish results while compatriot John Kyui (2:10:54) was third.
Fatuma Sado (2:30:20) and Makda Harun (2:30:47), followed Abeyo (2;26:12) to complete an all-Ethiopian sweep in the women's category.
The top winners in the two categories got a prize money of USD 36,000 each.
Tanzania's Dickson Marwa and Simon Kasimili were the initial pace setters as they exchanged the lead position during the the first 15 km stretch.
However, after the initial surge, Marwa fell behind and it was here that Kyui and Moiben began their domination. It was at about the 30km stretch that Moiben took the lead which he held throughout.
However, it was a close tussle for the two runners-up places which Assefa and Kyui finally managed to grab.
Yadav, who held the course record for the Indians here -- 2:18:03 set in 2009 -- finally fulfilled his potential as he completed the race in 2:16:59, bettering Olympic qualification timing of 2:18 hours. The Armyman was followed by Elam Singh (2:18:27), who narrowly missed qualification, and T A Rajesh (2:24:25).
Yadav said that his armymates Elam Singh and Karan Singh, who ultimately faded out after being in the lead in the Indian bunch to finish 20th, had given him good competition after he tried to match the Kenyans initially.
"I started strongly and tried to keep pace with the Kenyan runners for 2-3 km but realised that if I continued to do so I would fade out at the 21-22 km mark. Elam Singh and Karan Singh were hot on my heels and I was afraid I would be beaten too by them," said Yadav, who became the eighth Indian athlete to attain the qualifying mark for the London Games.
The other Indians who have achieved the mark are: Vikas Gowda (men's discus), Krishna Poonia (women's discus), Mayookha Johnny (women's triple jump), Tintu Luka (women's 800m), Gurdev Singh, Babubhai Panucha (men walkers with Gurdev attaining A mark and Panucha reaching B mark) and Om Prakash Singh (men's shot put).
"The weather was very helpful this time and there was no head wind too which also helped," Yadav added.
Army coach AS Mathew was also very emotional at his ward Yadav reaching the mark and also felt that the weather played its part.
"It was the best weather since the inception of the Mumbai Marathon. It was to the advantage of the runners. He had missed the qualifying mark earlier narrowly," said Mathew.
Mathew, who said a number of runners had trained at Wellington near Ooty ahead of the race, also took the opportunity to take a pot shot at the Athletics Federation of India for having given a 45-day break to the campers.
"They have a 45-day break. No other country does this. But the good news is that AFI has decided now, after my talks with Mr Dogra (AFI director) that 4 women and 6 men marathoners will be supported well," said Mathew.
Elam Singh said he was quite satisfied with his performance as he had converted from steeplechase to marathon running only 10 months ago.
"I am pleased with my performance. It was my first marathon. I was a 3000m steeplechase runner. It's a huge change from running 3 km to 42 km," said Bishnoi. — PTI
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