Belliappa finishes sixth among men, Ashvini eighth and Jyoti eleventh among women

India’s Man Singh secured the gold medal at the 2024 Asian Marathon Championships held in Hong Kong on Sunday, January 21, 2024.

He completed the 42.2-kilometre distance of the marathon in two hours, 14 minutes and 19 seconds, over a minute ahead of China’s Huang Yongzheng (2:15:24). In third position was Tiapken Ilia of Krygysthan (2:18:17).

His finish at Hong Kong was just short of his personal best of 2:14:13, which he secured at the 2023 edition of the New Delhi Marathon.

Last year at the Tata Mumbai Marathon (TMM), Man Singh had secured a silver medal among Indian elite runners with a finish in 2:16:58. Incidentally, the 2024 TMM was also held on Sunday (January 21), the same day as the event where Man Singh struck gold in Hong Kong. In 2017, Gopi Thonakkal who took the silver medal among Indian elite men in Mumbai on Sunday, had been the Asian Marathon Champion covering the distance in 2:15:48. At that time, the event was held in Dongguan, China.

India was represented by a four-member team at the Asian Marathon Championships 2024. The other three members apart from Man Singh were Jyoti Gawate, Ashvini Jadhav and Belliappa A.B.

Belliappa finished in sixth position with a timing of 2:20:19.

In the women’s race of the Asian Marathon Championships, Ashvini finished in eighth place, with a timing of 2:56:41 and Jyoti at eleventh, with a timing of 3:06:20.

The Asian Marathon Championships were held as part of the 2024 Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon.

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