Hirave wins men's full marathon; Verma, Sonika excel in half-marathons

Satara's Kalidas Hirave missed course record by mere five seconds but won the men's full marathon whereas Rohit Verma and Sonika finished first in the men's and women's half-marathons respectively, in the Vasai-Virar Municipal Corporation Marathon here on Sunday.

Hirave recorded a timing of 2 hours, 18 minutes and 19 seconds while Pradeep Singh Chaudhary finished second as he was another five seconds behind. At the third spot was two-time winner Mohit Rathore with a timing of 2:19.06s.

Hirave walked away with a prize of Rs 3 lakh.

The top three finishers remained close to each other for 40kms in the race and Rathore, who holds the course record of 2:18.05s which he had set in 2022, said he faced troubles towards the end of the race.

"My body didn't cooperate in the final lap. This is the first time I am finishing third. I will be back next year and promise to win with a course record."

Navy's Verma defeated Nitesh Rathva by a mere one second as each of the top five runners beat the course record of 1:04.37a, which was set by Anish Thapa in 2019.

Kolhapur's Deepak Kumbhar, who was in the lead till the 17km mark, struggled with calf pain and finished third, three seconds behind Rathva. Sonika, a farmer's daughter from Haryana and a Railway employee, won the women's half-marathon with a timing of 1:13.22s.

Sonika not only recorded her personal best but also rest the course record, which belonged to Ujala with 1:13.33s that she set in 2022.

Haryana's Bharti finished second with 1:13.51s while Sakshi Jadyal was third with 1:14.51s.

The race was flagged off by Sakshi Malik.

Results (all provisional):

Full marathon: 1. Kalidas Hirave (2:18.19), 2. Pradeep Singh Chaudhary (2:18:24), 3. Mohit Rathore (2:19:06), 4. Dhanavat Pralhad Ramsing (2:19:49), 5. Amit Ramesh Patil (2:25:13).

Half Marathon - Men’s: 1. Rohit Verma (1:03:12); 2. Niteshkumar Rathva (1:03:13); 3. Deepak Kumbhar (1:03:16); 4. Rinku Singh (1:04:07); 5. Shubham Sindhu (1:04:13).

Women's: 1. Sonika (1:13:12); 2. Bharti (1:13:51); 3. Sakshi Jadyal (1:14:21); 4. Archana Jadhav (1:14:50; 5). Tamsi Singh (1:16:36).