Lithuania’s Aleksandr Sorokin triumphs in the men’s segment

Poland wins women’s team gold, Lithuania in men’s

Indian men’s team finishes ninth, women fifteenth

Japan’s Miho Nakata set a new world record for the 24-hour run at the 2023 IAU 24-Hour World Championships held at Taipei, Taiwan over December 1 and 2.

She covered a distance of 270.363 kilometers during the stipulated 24 hours, breaking the previous record of 270.116 km (provisional) set by Camille Herron in 2019.

Aleksandr Sorokin of Lithuania defended his world champion title winning in the men’s category with a distance of 301.790 km covered. Europe dominated the podium in both team and individual segments.

In team ranking, Poland won the gold in the women’s race with a combined distance of 726.552 km covered. Japan earned silver with a total distance of 702.911 km while Czech Republic took the bronze with an aggregate distance of 697.275 km covered by its best performing three runners during the 24 hour-period.

In the men’s race, Lithuania won the gold with a combined distance of 813.368 km followed by Poland (787.964 km) and Great Britain and Northern Ireland with a distance of 771.794 km.

In the women’s individual category, Olena Shevchenko of Ukraine (254.463 km) finished second to win silver and Partycja Bereznowska (249.541 km) of Poland, the bronze.

In the men’s individual category, Fotios Zisimopoulos of Greece (292.254 km) took the silver and Andrii Tkachuk (284.540 km), the bronze.

The Indian men’s team finished in ninth position with a combined distance of 691.849 km. The women’s team finished fifteenth with a total distance of 540.964.

Amar Singh Devanda was topped among Indian runners covering a distance of 236.800 km in the assigned 24 hours. Saurav Ranjan was second with a distance of 228 km and Ullas Narayana, third with a distance of 226 km.

Among Indian women, Anju Saini topped with 186.252 km covered in 24 hours. Anju holds the national record for the 24-hour segment. She had set that record of 204.314 km at the IAU 24 Hour Asia & Oceania Championships, 2022, held at Bengaluru. Shashi Mehta was second among Indian women with a distance of 182.632 km. Priyanka Bhatt was third with a distance of 172.080 km.

“ My race usually starts in the last six hours of the 24 hours. But here in Taipei, the weather took a turn for the worse. At the start of the race, it was windy. The sun was hidden behind a thick layer of clouds. After a few hours it started drizzling but humidity stayed high,” Anju told this blog.

By the evening of December 1, the rains turned heavy and were accompanied by strong winds. “ I started to get fever and body ache. It was very tough for most runners. Many runners gave up the race,” she said.

Anju herself considered quitting many times but was convinced by the team manager to keep going. “ I also had blisters on my feet as my shoes were wet. I changed my shoes twice but to no avail,” she said.

“ We had trained for a completely different weather scenario in Taiwan,” she said.

According to the Indian team manager Santhosh Padmanabhan, the weather conditions were tougher than expected. “ It was cold and windy with rain while we came prepared for heat and humidity,” he said.

The Indian team’s performance – both men’s and women’s – was historic as the men’s team broke into the top 10 and the women into the top 15 at a world championship, he said.

“ The best part of the Indian team’s performance was that none of the runners gave up despite difficult conditions,” Anju said.

“ This is a big learning experience for us. We will take the learnings from this race and come back stronger,” Santhosh said.

(The author, Latha Venkatraman, is an independent journalist based in Mumbai. All distances given are provisional)