Jyoti Gawate (Photo: courtesy Ravi Raskatla)

Rashpal Singh and Sher Singh place second and third respectively in men’s marathon

Hiruni Wijayaratne of Sri Lanka secured gold in women’s marathon at the 2019 South Asian Games, currently on in Nepal. She covered the distance in 2:41:24.

Silver medal went to Pushpa Bhandari of Nepal ((2:50:11).

India’s Jyoti Gawate took the bronze (2:52:44).

Jyoti’s compatriot Jigmet Dolma placed fifth (3:07:24). This was Jigmet’s first time representing the country.

The race took place earlier today, December 7, 2019.

Hailing from Parbhani, Maharashtra, Jyoti is a familiar face at road races in the country including the annual Tata Mumbai Marathon (TMM), where she has been podium finisher multiple times. This was Jyoti’s second outing at South Asian Games. Earlier in 2016, she had been part of the marathon team for that year’s South Asian Games held in Guwahati. In 2011, she had taken part in the Asian Marathon Championships in Thailand and finished seventh among women with a timing of 3:17 hours. She was chosen for the event in Thailand because of her podium finish at the 2011 Mumbai Marathon. AFI had funded her trip and stay. The federation also sent her to participate in the SCO Marathon in China.

At the 2019 edition of TMM, she had finished second among elite Indian women with a personal best timing of 2:45:48. Both Jyoti and Jigmet were selected to represent India at the 2019 South Asian Games based on their podium positions at the fourth edition of the IDBI Federal Life Insurance New Delhi Marathon held on February 24, 2019. Ahead of leaving for Nepal and the 2019 South Asian Games, Jyoti had told this blog that she would be aiming for a performance close to what she achieved at TMM (for more on Jyoti please try this link: https://shyamgopan.com/2019/02/04/jyoti-and-the-eight-minutes/).

According to Wikipedia, Hiruni Wijayaratne is a Sri Lankan-American track and field athlete specializing in long distance running. She represented her country in the 2017 London Marathon and the 2017 World Athletics Championships. She holds ten Sri Lankan national records. She holds the Sri Lankan national record in the women’s marathon of 2:34:10, which is also a South Asia Area Record.  The Indian national record in the women’s marathon set by O.P. Jaisha at the 2015 World Championships in Beijing is 2:34:43.

In the men’s marathon, Kiran Singh Bogati of Nepal emerged victorious. As per information available on the official website of the 2019 South Asian Games, he clinched gold, covering the distance in 2:21:17. Silver went to India’s Rashpal Singh (2:21:57); India’s Sher Singh took bronze (2:27:07).

(The authors, Latha Venkatraman and Shyam G Menon, are independent journalists based in Mumbai. For more background information on Jyoti and Jigmet please click on this link: https://shyamgopan.com/2019/11/29/jyoti-jigmet-in-marathon-team-for-2019-south-asian-games/; you can also refer the archives of this blog for articles on them.)