Allahabad :

The finishing line on the tracks of Madan Mohan Malviya stadium of the Sangam city witnessed history in making when three ace runners from the services finished back to back with a difference of few seconds, to bag the first three positions in the 33rd all India Indira Gandhi prize money marathon, held on Sunday.

Along with this Joyti Shankar Rao Gaute also wrote history by winning the marathon for the fifth time in a row and winning the prize money of Rs 2 lakhs.

In the men’s category, Yashpal Singh (chest number 323) of the services won the marathon by clocking 2:25:33 seconds. Wearing chest number 323, Yashpal, hailing from Kanpur, was applauded by the audience as the two of his competitors, one among whom was from Allahabad itself, were putting their best efforts to beat him. Yashpal bagged the prize money of Rs 2 lakhs by winning the marathon.

Close to Yashpal, Anil Kumar Singh (chest number 138), also from services and a native of Allahabad, bagged the second position staying just few seconds behind Yashpal. Anil clocked a timing of 2:25:39 seconds.

On the third position was Anand Singh (chest number 280) from Kanpur. The runner from services finished the marathon by a timing of 2:25:51 seconds.

In the women category, Joyti Shankar Rao Gaute (chest number 1162) made history by winning the title for the fifth time in a row. She had been the winner of this marathon since 2013. Gaute, a runner from Maharashtra, won the marathon by clocking a timing of 2:54:26 seconds, which was around four minutes more than her last year’s record when she completed the marathon in 2:50:57 seconds.

Gaute was followed by Anita Chaudhary (chest number 1200) of Gazipur who clocked a timing of 3:07:40 seconds to bag the first runner up of the marathon. The third place was won by Rani Yadav (chest number 1191) of Varanasi. She finished the marathon in 3:08:06 seconds, around one minute behind Anita.

Earlier the marathon was flagged off by ace Olympian and Laxman awardee Pramod Tiwari along with district magistrate, Suhas L Y and the International shuttler Abhhin Shayam Gupta who also distributed the prices of this 33rd all India Indira marathon.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News> City News> Allahabad News / TNN / Rajiv Mani / TNN / November 19th, 2017