The Hindu : Sport / Athletics : Nyaga makes it a start-to-finish affair

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Monday, Dec 17, 2007
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Nyaga makes it a start-to-finish affair

Special Correspondent

Surender Singh wins men’s half marathon

— Photo: K. Murali Kumar

MOMENT TO CHERISH: Ngir Nyaga (full Marathon), Agnes (half marathon) and Surender Singh (half marathon) pose with their medals.

BANGALORE: Kenyans swept the top three positions in the BSNL Bangalore International Marathon, held here on Sunday morning. Ngira Nyaga, the 31-year-old, made it a start to finish affair covering the gruelling 42.195kms stretch in 2 hours 22:32.0 seconds to pocket $5,000.

With the ‘big’ names of Indian marathon shying away, it was the Kenyans and Ethiopians who formed the lead bunch until Fantaw Hussen and Kasahun Gabreezher, both from Ethiopia, dropped back. Fantaw, however, upped his pace in the later stages to finish fourth, just behind Kenya’s Sua Mutisya. Kasahun finished sixth behind India’s Munna Mahli.

Shoulder to shoulder

Nyaga and Makau Nzioka ran shoulder to shoulder for most of the up run. At the 33kms mark the lesser experienced of the two — Nyaga — broke away to make it a single horse race.

MEG fielded three runners in the full marathon and all three finished in the top 10.

Narendra Singh finished seventh and Somaraj 10th. Raja and Raghavan were the other Indians to finish in the top 10.

Garwal Rifles’ Surender Singh and Kenya’s Agnes claimed top honours in the men’s and women’s half marathon.

The received $2,000 each. Surender finished in 1:04.5s. Agnes and Pauline made it a Kenya 1-2 finish ahead of the Indian surge led by Kavitha Raut in the women’s half marathon.

The results: Full marathon: Men: 1. Ngira Nyaga (Ken) 2:22:32.0s, 2. Makau Nzioka (Ken) 2:25:26.0s, 3. Sua Mutisya (Ken) 2:31:25.0s.

Half marathon: Women: 1. Agnes (Ken) 1:11.3s, 2. Pauline (Ken) 1:12.1s, 3. Kavitha Raut (Ind) 1:14.1s.

Men: 1. Surender Singh (Ind) 1:04.5s, 2. Habteselassie Gemechu (Eth) 1:04.6s, 3. Santosh Kumar (Ind) 1:05.2s.

Senior Citizen: Men: 1. Bala Subramania, 2. K.L. Patil. Women: 1. Sudha, 2. Prabhavathi, 3. Parvathi.

Wheelchair: 1. T. Seetaram, 2. H.T. Krishna Reddy, 3. H. Nagaraj.

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