Two ultra-runners broke the national record in the women’s 100-kilometre race at the Ageas Federal Life Insurance 24-hour Stadium Run, Bengaluru, held over April 30–May 1, 2022.

Both Nupur Singh and Jyoti Gawate, finished with timing better than the previous national record of nine hours, eight minutes and 18 seconds, set by Gunjan Khurana at the Tuffman 24 Hour Stadium Run held on March 13 and 14, 2021 in Chandigarh.

Nupur finished the distance in 8:44:27 and Jyoti in 8:57:07 hours. The new national record now stands with Nupur Singh. Manisha Joshi finished third with timing of 9:11:01.

Nupur, an ultrarunner, was running her second 100 km race at Bengaluru. She had participated in the IAU Asia & Oceania 100 km Championships held at Aqaba, Jordan, in the open category and not as part of the Indian team. She had finished the race then in 9:36:15.

“ My plan, this time, was to finish in under nine hours. I intended to keep to a steady pace for the first four to five hours and that went as per plan. I did my first 50 km in four hours and 15 minutes. I took it slightly easy after that for a while,” she said. Aware that Jyoti Gawate was ahead of her, she again picked up her pace. Once she went ahead of Jyoti, she slowed down her pace to finish in a new record timing.

“ The weather was much better than I expected. The race started at 8 PM and it was quite warm until 10 PM. Later some drizzle helped cool down temperatures,” Nupur said, adding, “ I took 10 gels through the run. I also had oranges, beet juice and water.”

“ I think I could have done better but I did not want to push any further mainly because I want to be fit for the upcoming IAU 100 km World Championships, slated to be held in Berlin on August 27, 2022,” Nupur said.

For Jyoti Gawate, an elite marathon runner, this was her second attempt at an ultra-running event. She is yet to get used to running these extended distances. “ The maximum mileage in my practice was a marathon, which I did just a few days before this event. My first 50 km went off well,” Jyoti said adding that she is new to stadium running and is yet to get used to it.

Among men, Binay Kumar Sah finished first in 100 km with timing of 7:56:59. Sandeep Kumar came in second with timing of 8:04:21 and Amar Singh Devanda third, in 8:14:07.

No records were broken in the men’s 100 km. Amar Singh Devanda holds the record of 7:32:43 in this category, set at the Tuffman 24 Hour Stadium Run at Chandigarh in March 2021.

In the 24-Hour category, Amar Shiv Dev was the winner. He covered a distance of 218.8 km during the scheduled time. “ The conditions were tough. Running the first half was quite difficult as it was very hot,” he said. Subhash Chandra came in a distant second covering 172.8 km while Manendra Kumar Tripathi finished third with a distance of 169.6 km covered.

“ The heat was impacting our running. Many runners were taking frequent breaks. I kept running but fell ill and had bouts of nausea at least four times,” Amar Shiv Dev said.

Among women, Ritu Bhatia Gupta was the leader with mileage of 143.2 km followed by Aparna Choudhary at 139.6 km covered and Anuradha H.K. at 135.2 km.

In the 12-Hour category, Pritam Rai finished first among men with a distance of 109.6 km covered, followed by Mahesh M (107.2 km) and Sugourav Goswami (99.2 km). Among women, Anju Saini covered a distance of 104.8 km during the scheduled time to come in first. Ashwini G finished second with a distance of 96 km and Meenal Kotak (93.6 km) came in third.

In the absence of adequate training, Ashwini decided to take the 12-Hour run as a training run. Ashwini holds the national record of 111.78 km for 12-Hour run having set it at the 2020 Tuffman Stadium Run at Chandigarh.

“ I decided to take this run as a confidence building exercise. It was fun running along with many good runners. My run started at 8 PM. There were many runners on the track including the 100 km athletes, the relay runners,” she said. Ashwini has often consumed natural foods during her ultra-runs. This time around, she tried Unived gels, she said.

(The author, Latha Venkatraman, is an independent journalist based in Mumbai.)