Haruki Okayama, Floriane Hot are 2022 world champions

India’s Vipul Kumar and Jyoti Gawate rewrote the national best in the 100K run by a sizable margin, in the men’s and women’s categories respectively, at the 32nd IAU 100km World Championships in Bernau-Berlin on August 27, 2022.

Covering 100 km in seven hours, four minutes and 52 seconds, Vipul was the 38th male runner to cross the finish line. He improved the previous national best of 7:32:43 – set by Amar Singh Devanda in March 2021 – by a handsome margin.

Same was the case with Jyoti. A regular podium finisher at major marathons, who recently added the ultramarathon to her portfolio, she covered the 100 km in Berlin in 8:20:07, improving upon the previous national best of 8:44:27 set by Nupur Singh in April-May 2022.

Jyoti finished 41st among women. “ I am very happy for her. She has been trying to break the national record for marathon distance. This is a very good achievement,” Jyoti’s coach Ravi Raskatla said when contacted by this blog. Hailing from Parbhani in Maharashtra, Jyoti has been part of the national team in the marathon. The race in Berlin was the first time she represented India in an ultramarathon.

At the 100K World Championships the places on the podium for men was dominated by Japan and that for women, by France.

Haruki Okayama of Japan finished first among men and first overall, covering the distance of 100 km in six hours, 12 minutes and 10 seconds. His compatriot Jumpei Yamaguchi took silver in 6:17:20. Piet Wiersma of the Netherlands won the bronze medal with timing of 6:18:47.

In the women’s category in Berlin, gold went to Floriane Hot of France; she covered the distance in 7:04:03. Camille Chaigneau, also of France, placed second in 7:06:32. The bronze medal went to Caitriona Jennings of Ireland (7:07:17).

Among Indian women runners at the race, following Jyoti, Nupur Singh finished with a timing of 8:52:18 to place 57th among women. Gunjan Khurana with a timing of 9:17:15 placed 71st among women runners in the race.

On the men’s side, Om Prakash Saran finished in 7:25:44 (53rd finisher among men). His timing too an improvement on the previous national best. Contacted after the race, Om Prakash said that the weather was quite favourable and he was very happy with the nutrition and hydration support.

As per provisional data, in the team category for men, the top three teams were Japan, France and South Africa (in that order). The same for women was – USA, France and Japan. The Indian women’s team was placed 13th in its gender category.

(The authors, Latha Venkatraman and Shyam G Menon, are independent journalists based in Mumbai. Please note: race data usually takes some time to settle. If there is any change to timings and team positions, it will be corrected suitably.)