Indian marathoners upbeat despite bottom-half finish

New Delhi, Nov 1 : They lag behind the foreign athletes but Indian marathoners are a motivated bunch and say they can challenge the world's best if provided with proper resources.

Deepchand Saharan (64 mins) and Sukanya Mall (80:11 sec) were the first Indians to cross the finishing line in the men's and women's section of the Airtel Delhi Half Marathon Sunday.

While Deepchand was 17th overall, 4 mins and 6 seconds slower than the winner Deriba Merga of Ethopia, on the 21-km track, Mall finished 22nd, 13 mins and 17 seconds behind world champion Mary Keitany of Kenya, who set a new record for that distance.

Santhosh Kumar (65:10) and Soji Mathews (65:18) were the second and third placed Indians in the men's section while Anuradha Singh (82:07) and Kamlesh Baghel (83:23) followed Sukanya in the women's section.

All of them are training for the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games and the Asian Games.

"We are training at the national camp in Bangalore and this was a test event for us. It will help us to see how much we have progressed. Our aim is to perform well at the Commonwealth and Asian Games," said Deepchand, who shaved off 48 seconds from the existing Indian mark of 64.48.

Santosh Kumar, who hails from Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh, says they need more help from the government.

"It's a very tough sport. We all have jobs and it's not possible for us to concentrate alone on the sport. You can't expect us to do the work in office and then train for 3-4 hours everyday. It demands complete dedication," Santosh says.

"This is a sport where if you don't train for a month or two, then you have to begin from the scratch. It's not like cricket or football where you can quickly get back to form after some games. But we are slowly improving. If we want to see Indian athletes perform, then the juniors need to be given proper enviornment to train so that they can match the international athletes."

Incidentally, all the three women were from Uttar Pradesh, two of them - Sukanya and Anuradha - hail from Gorakhpur.

"I took to the sport while I was in school. There is no sponsor and I do not have a job. But running is my passion and I will continue to pursue it."

There were separate prizes for the top 10 Indian finishers.

The top three won $4,000, $3,000 and $ 2,000.

--IANS