Gopi Thonakal, Ashvini Jadhav win 2024 New Delhi Marathon

Gopi Thonakal, among India’s leading marathon runners and owner of the best timing in the discipline since the late national record holder Shivnath Singh, won the overall title at the 2024 Apollo Tyres New Delhi Marathon.

He covered the distance in two hours, 14 minutes and 35 seconds to secure the gold medal, which was however quite distant from the Paris Olympics qualifying mark of 2:08:10. Srinu Bughata, the winner of the 2024 Tata Mumbai Marathon (TMM), finished three seconds behind Gopi. Akshay Saini finished third with a timing of 2:15:24 (please note: all the timings have been taken from the results available on the website of the official time keeper for the race).

Mid-January at the 2024 TMM, Srinu had won in 2:17:29 with Gopi taking the second spot with timing of 2:18:37.

Among Indian women at the 2024 New Delhi Marathon, Ashvini Jadhav was the winner with her finish of 2:52:21. She secured a personal best in this race. TMM’s winner among elite Indian women, Thakor Nirmaben Bharatjee, finished in second position with a timing of 2:55:44. In third position was Divyanka Chaudhary, who crossed the finish line in 2:57:03.

The open category race of the marathon in New Delhi was won by Amit Khanduri in a timing of 2:29:20. The women’s race was won by Saraswati Rai with a timing of 3:02:46.

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