The Indian team for the upcoming IAU 50K World Championships (due November 5, 2023 in Hyderabad) has been announced.

According to an official statement available on the website of the Athletics Federation of India (AFI), the men’s team includes Bangriya Vikram Bharatsinh, Anish Thapa Magar, Mohit Rathor, Dhanavat Pralhad Ramsing, Akshay Saini and Arjun Pradhan with Iraan Ali and Pradeep Singh Chaudhary as stand by. The women’s team includes Jadhav Ashvini Madan, Jyoti Gawate, Kavitha Reddy and Prachi Raju Godbole.

The 50K (50 kilometres), while just a shade longer than the regular marathon, is an important distance in the ultramarathon because in the emergent scheme of things, it is the distance currently pitched for potential inclusion in the Olympic Games. The ultramarathon has so far not featured in the Olympics and the quadrennial sporting spectacle, influenced as it is by the compulsions of the broadcast industry, may not warm up to the long distances and long duration of running that characterize ultramarathons. Given this, the 50K – particularly on scenic trail (trail running) – is seen to attract as it is technically an ultramarathon and yet not significantly longer than a marathon.

During their visit to India for a 100K championship held earlier this year in Bengaluru, senior officials of the International Association of Ultrarunners (IAU) had told this blog that the typical 50K team selection process studies marathon runners as opposed to those focused on long ultramarathons. Herein, top performing marathon elites who specialize in that discipline and wish to continue so may not want to come off the 42K distance and adapt to the 50K. Besides deeming the 50K an avoidable distraction from what they are focused on, they may also see training for the 50K as capable of temporarily hurting their performance in the marathon. You therefore need people who may find the transition sensible or interesting to try. Those in the marathon, who are a notch below the top elites and wish to adapt to the shortest ultramarathon around or take a shot at it, are the ones potentially capable of satisfying the blend of speed and endurance that the 50K is all about, the officials had explained.

In September, the AFI had informed via a circular that it planned to select six men and six women to be the Indian team for the IAU 50K World Championships scheduled in Hyderabad. It assigned a qualifying cut-off time of two hours, 50 minutes in the marathon, for men and three hours, 20 minutes for women with the timings submitted being from races held between November 5, 2022 and August 10, 2023. It is understood that the circular received good response from runners, especially for the men’s category. The bigger the pool of applicants to choose from, the better the chances of forming a team with good marathon speeds to prepare for the 50K.

The current world record in the men’s 50K is held by C. J. Albertson of the US – 2:38:43 set in 2022 (source: Wikipedia; as per the online encyclopaedia, the record awaits ratification). According to irunfar.com, Albertson used to hold the all-surface 50K record – 2:42:30 – set on track in 2020. That was improved upon by Ethiopia’s Ketema Negasa (2:42:07, set in 2021). In 2022, Negasa’s mark was bested by South Africa’s Stephen Mokoka (2:40:13). The world record in a women’s only 50K race was held by South Africa’s Irvette Van Zyl (3:04:24). Desiree Linden of the US holds the word record for 50K in a mixed gender race – 2:59:54, set in 2021 (source: Wikipedia).

Incidentally, three of these records (as well as a fourth world record – 3:00:29 set by Ethiopia’s Emane Seifu Hayile in February 2023; she broke Van Zyl’s mark) happened at the Breaking Barriers 50km (aka Nedbank Runified Breaking Barriers 50km), held annually in South Africa. The event features a 10 kilometre-loop, repeated five times. IAU officials had mentioned South Africa as an emergent centre of activity for the 50K, which bridges the marathon and the ultramarathon.

(The author, Shyam G Menon, is a freelance journalist based in Mumbai.)