The Hindu : Sport / Athletics : Anuradha does Bangalore proud

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Dec 27, 2007
ePaper

Sport

Sport - Athletics

Anuradha does Bangalore proud

Special Correspondent

— Photo: K. Gopinathan

Anuradha Vaidyanathan.

BANGALORE: ‘Ironman.’

It is perhaps the toughest race for any athlete. Imagine a contest which is four times the distance of triathlon, which includes a full marathon run of 42.2km, and add to it a killing schedule of 3.8km of swimming and 180km of cycling.

It is a challenging test of endurance and there are hardly any takers for it in India, barring Bangalore’s Anuradha Vaidyanathan.

The 27-year old, CEO of a software firm Pat N’ Mark, who took up the gruelling sport in 2005, has been doing well for herself since her debut race, the Canadian Half ‘Ironman’ in 2006.

Commendable show

Anuradha was back in town after participating as the lone Indian in three events in New Zealand and notched a commendable performance.

She finished first in the Port Hills 20K Challenge, which was a hill race run over 20km. Later, she was placed third in her age-group and eighth overall at the Ashburton Half ‘Ironman,’ where she set a personal best in the half-‘Ironman’ distance (2km of swimming, 90km of cycling and 21.1km run) with a time of six hours and two minutes. Her previous best in half-‘Ironman’ was six hours and 30 minutes, which she did in March.

She raced another half-‘Ironman’ at Rotora within two weeks of the first one and was 44th overall in a field of 160.

“This was a race where few things did not come together and I had a few issues on the bike, but I overcame it to get to the finish in a good time,” Anuradha said in a chat with The Hindu.

She wanted to participate in the Bangalore International Marathon here on December 16. “But on the same dates, I was competing in New Zealand. Even if I had run in Bangalore, I would have been the lone competitor in the women’s section as the organisers had scrapped it for lack of entries here,” Anuradha said.

Anuradha plans to compete in the World Championship to be held later this year.

Dearth of sponsors

Besides the dearth of sponsors, another hurdle that Anuradha faced was lack of a good coach.

“That issue is now being sorted out as Scott Molina, a well known American coach based in New Zealand, has offered to be my personal trainer and I look forward to a good season in 2008,” Anuradha said.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport