Month: June 2023

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KABIR FINISHES RAAM FOR THE THIRD TIME

Kabir Rachure soon after his successful completion of 2023 RAAM in the solo category (Photo: courtesy Sapana Rachure)

Secures second place in age category

Amit Samarth and Srinivas Gokulnath complete RAAM for the second time

Results are provisional

Kabir Rachure got his third successful finish at Race Across America (RAAM) on Saturday, June 24, 2023, with a second place in his age group to boot.

He finished on the tenth day – 10 days, 19 hours, 21 minutes – from race commencement, a much-valued objective among Indian aspirants. The result is an improvement on Kabir’s timing from the 2022 RAAM, when he had completed the race in 11 days, 11 hours and 25 minutes and placed third his age category of men under 50. That was his second finish in RAAM’s solo segment. Earlier in 2019, his first successful completion of RAAM had been in 11 days, 22 hours and 43 minutes.

Hours after Kabir crossed the finish line at 2023 RAAM, Amit Samarth and Srinivas Gokulnath registered their second successful completion of the race. Amit completed in 11 days, four hours and 38 minutes; Srinivas in 11 days, six hours. In 2017, Srinivas had been the first Indian to complete RAAM in the solo category. He took 11 days, 18 hours and 45 minutes. Amit followed Srinivas to the finish line in 11 days and 21 hours, giving India two solo finishers that year.

At the time of writing, the 2023 race results were provisional. According to some of those tracking RAAM from India, there was an incident of forest fire en route due to which, participants were advised travel in vehicles between two time-stations (TS 8 and TS 9). Subsequently, as the race continued, there appears to have been two notes to participants on the subject. In their first communique, race organizers informed that solo riders may see time adjustment of nine hours post-race. Later, a note of June 22, while not mentioning nine hours, said (among other things), “ Cut offs remain as they are in the rules and this adjustment taken after the fact will not affect your official finish status but will affect your final speeds and race data.’’ It added that until the final adjustment is made, “ all awards and records will be provisional.’’ As per this note, the shuttle of 102.8 miles (165.44 kilometres) between time-stations 8 and 9 reduced this year’s course length to 2934.09 miles (4721.96 kilometres).

RAAM normally spans a little over 3000 miles (4800 kilometres), from the west coast of the United States to its east. The cut off time to complete RAAM solo, is 12 days. “ Finishing RAAM itself is a Herculean task,’’ Bharat Pannu, among leading ultra-cyclists in India and a RAAM aspirant, said on Kabir’s performance and how it would be a new benchmark for those set to follow. The 2023 RAAM was won by Isa Pulver of Switzerland. She covered the distance in nine days, 12 hours and 16 minutes; only the second instance of a woman winning RAAM’s solo category overall, after Leah Goldstein of Canada in 2021.

(The author, Shyam G Menon, is a freelance journalist based in Mumbai. This report will be updated if there are any changes to the performance data quoted as a consequence of the post-race time adjustment.)

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AT A GLANCE / JUNE 2023

Meenal Kotak (Photo: Shyam G Menon)

India’s Meenal Kotak wins 72-hour ultra-marathon in Milwaukee, USA

New Delhi-based ultra-runner Meenal Kotak has emerged the overall winner of the 72-hour ultra-marathon race at the Six Days in the Dome event held at Pettit National Ice Centre at Milwaukee from June 18 to 24, 2023.

She covered a distance of 235.3199 miles or 378.3107 kilometres during the stipulated 72 hours.

The six-day ultramarathon has races of differing distances such as six-day run, 72 hours, 48 hours, 24 hours and 12 hours.

In the 72-hour category, Lisa Georgis from the US finished second overall with a distance of 206.6627 (332.5914 km). The third finisher in this category was Ian Maddieson from the US with a mileage of 150.1749 miles (241.6831 km).

Runners were required to run in a loop of 443.445 metres.

Sampathkumar Subramanian (Photo: courtesy Sampathkumar)

World Mountain & Trail Running Championships / Two Indian runners, finish

Indian trail runners, participating in the World Mountain & Trail Running Championships held at Innsbruck-Stubai, Austria, finished at 139 and 140th position in the short trail event.

Sampathkumar Subramanian covered the distance of 45 kilometres (3200 metres of total elevation gain) in six hours, 35 minutes and 49 seconds. Sannat Sachdev finished the distance in 6:36:49 as per results on the race website.

The event was held from June 7 to 10, 2023.

Som Bahadur Thami, Indian runner for short trail, was listed as “did not show up” on the results website. Another Indian runner, Hemant Limbu, scheduled to do the long trail, was listed as DNS (did not start) on the website.

“ The trail run was quite tough but a great experience, running in the Alps,” Sampathkumar told this blog. He had earlier participated in the World Mountain & Trail Running Championships held in November 2022 in Thailand.

2023 RAAM / Race enters final stages

As of June 23, the year’s Race Across America, with three Indian cyclists in the solo category, was into its final stages.

Checked at noon, June 23, nine days since her solo cycling across the US commenced, race leader Isa Pulver of Switzerland, hailing from the female 50-59 age category of the event, had covered 2973.8 miles and was headed to the finish at Annapolis.

Lionel Poggio, also from Switzerland and belonging to the male 50-59 age category, was in second place having covered 2802.4 miles.

The Indian trio of Kabir Rachure, Srinivas Gokulnath and Amit Samarth – all slotted in the male under-50 age category, appeared to be doing well in terms of covering ground in the race.

With 2720.3 miles covered, Kabir was placed sixth overall among solo cyclists at 2023 RAAM (when checked at noon, June 23) and second in his age category. Interestingly, the top six was evenly divided between the genders. In 2021 Leah Goldstein of Canada had become the first woman to be overall winner at RAAM. 

RAAM requires a solo participant to pedal roughly 3000 miles across the continental United States, from the west coast to the east. The cut off time is 12 days. Solo riders have support teams trailing them in a vehicle, making sure they and their cycles are looked after.

(The authors, Latha Venkatraman and Shyam G Menon, are independent journalists based in Mumbai.)