Bangalore (PTI): Zersenay Tadesse of Eritrea bagged the USD 1,50,000 Sunfeast World 10K Race title, while Grace Momanyi of Kenya and Elevan Abeylegesse of Turkey were declared joint winners in the women's section here on Sunday.

Zersenay ran the 10km distance in 27 minutes 51 secs just three seconds ahead of his rival Moses of Uganda, while Ethiopian Tsegave Kebede, with a timing of 28 minutes 10 secs, finished third.

In the women's section, the race authorities, who had declared Elvan (32 minute 00 secs) as the winner earlier, had to withhold the result following objection by Grace.

The juries after going through the timing and finish recorded in the TV camera later declared them as joint winners with timings of 32 minutes 02 secs.

Doris Chernwego of Kenya, who clocked 32 minutes 31 secs, came third.

For 26-year-old Zersenay, it was his maiden title in India. The Eritrean lad said, "Moses gave tough fight especially from 50m to the finishing point. But I preserved my energy and made it despite the mercury touching 32 degree Celsius."

"It was really good experience and the win was a moral booster before the Beijing Olympics," he said.

Moses said that "though I wanted to overtake Zersenay to finish first, my legs did not respond to my call. I am satisfied and will concentrate on my physical fitness before going to Beijing".

While the winners (both men and women) won USD 20,000 each, second and third place finishers were richer by USD 12,000 and USD 8,000 each.

In the women's section, the total prize money for winner and runners-up (USD 20,000 and USD 12,000) were divided equally (USD 32,000) between Grace and Elvan.

In the national women's section, Puneetha Rao won the title in 'Elite Indian Women 10K' category with a timing of 36 minutes, while Sudha Singh (37 minutes 35 secs) and Kiran Tiwari (38 minutes 26 secs) were placed second and third respectively.

All the three top finishers belong to Railways and they were training at the Sports Authority of India Southern Centre here in preparation for Beijing Olympics qualification.

Puneetha, who is completing in the Nationals at Madurai on June 18 to give a shot for Beijing, said, "I am satisfied with my timing. I was able to beat two international athletes in today's run and with this my confidence to qualify for Beijing got further boost."

Sudha Singh and Kiran Tiwari said, "We were steeple chase athletes and this was for the first time we participated in a 10K run and were satisfied with the performance."

In the national men's section also, athletes from Railways dominated the field with Kasinath winning the 'Elite Indian Men 10K' event with a timing of 29 minutes 54 secs, while his colleagues Santosh Kumar (30 minutes 04 secs) and Soji Mathew (30 minutes 06 secs) bagged second and third places respectively.