Course record smashed in the men’s half marathon

New course record in women’s half marathon

Kalidas Hirave won the 2024 Vasai Virar Municipal Marathon (VVMM) held on December 8.

The runner, who hails from Satara in Maharashtra, completed the race in two hours, 18 minutes and 21 seconds. He missed the course record in the men’s marathon by just seven seconds. Pradeep Singh Chaudhary came in second, finishing closely behind Kalidas in 2:18:26. Two-time winner, twice runner-up and course record holder Mohit Rathore finished third with timing of 2:19:09.

An official press release quoting Kalidas said that he had been initially uncertain of running the year’s VVMM. “ I changed my mind at the last minute and decided to run competitively,” he was quoted as saying. Kalidas won three lakh rupees as prize money.

Speaking to this blog, he said, “ I wanted to run the marathon as a practice for the Mumbai Marathon but ended up racing. I did not know what the course record here was.’’ He said that the course at VVMM was good as was the support. Kalidas works with the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) and is currently posted in Nashik. He works from 10 AM to 2 PM and manages to train twice a day like elite athletes typically do.  

According to VVMM’s press release, Mohit ran well and appeared to be on track for a third time win but fell back towards the end and finished third. He had set the course record of 2:18:05 in 2022.

The men’s half-marathon saw a photo-finish for the top two spots with Rohit Verma of the Navy pipping Nitesh Rathva by a mere one second. Rohit finished in 1:03:14. Deepak Kumbhar (1:03:18) placed third. Deepak was in the lead in the early miles but slowed down due to calf pain.

The top five runners beat the course record of 1:04.37 set by Anish Thapa in 2019 by a huge margin and also registered their personal bests. Rohit attributed his win to the pleasant weather on race day.

Haryana’s Sonika won the women’s half-marathon with a timing of 1:13:14, a new course record and also her personal best. The old record (1:13:33) stood in the name of Ujala, set in 2022. Bharti, also of Haryana, stood second with 1:13:54 while Sakshi Jadyal was third with 1:14:23.

The race was flagged off by Olympic and Commonwealth medallist Sakshi Malik, who was the brand ambassador of the event. The event was organized by the Vasai Virar City Municipal Corporation and the Vasai Virar Kala Kreeda Vikas Mandal, and promoted by Aryanz Sports.

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