Amar Singh Devanda sets a new national record in 12 hour run at Bengaluru Stadium Run 2025

Aparna Choudhary, Geeno Antony take top honours in 24-hour run

Ultra runner Amar Singh Devanda bettered his own national record in the 12-hour run at the 24-hour Stadium Run Bengaluru held on March 30 and 31, 2025.

Amar ran a distance of 151.6 kilometres during the stipulated 12 hours, smashing his own record of 145.2 km set previously. He also holds the current national record for 24-hours with a distance of 272.54 km covered.

In the 24-hour run category, Aparna Choudhary and Geeno Antony won in the women’s and men’s categories respectively. They qualified for the IAU 24-Hour World Championship to be held in Albi, France later this year.

In the women’s race in the 12-hour category, Bengaluru-based Bindu Juneja finished with top honours covering a distance of 108.8 km.

Amar Devanda’s training for the 12-hour run was a coordinated effort of the NEB Performance Team, which included a nutritionist, a running coach and a strength and conditioning coach. “ The training was devised with a scientific approach,” he said. As Amar has already qualified for the World Championship, the focus was to step up his pace in the 12-hour run so as to attempt the same pace during a 24-hour run.

“ My run went as per the plan laid out by the coaches,” he said. Post event, his recovery has also been quite good. “ I should shortly commence my training for the World Championship,” he said.

Aparna Choudhary, winner of the women’s 24-hour run, said she was confident going into the race as her training went well. Aparna normally does her training runs in the afternoon, therefore the weather adversities did not trouble her during the race.

On race day, weather was pleasant in the early hours at Bengaluru but got progressively tough with harsh sun and gradual rise in temperature.

“ I did suffer some gut issues, which really got bad. Lalita (race director of India Backyard Ultra), the person crewing for me, saved the day. I also ended up with hip flexor issues, a common problem that I have faced in many of my ultra runs,” Aparna said. In the 24-hour run, she covered a distance of 192 km.

In February 2025, Aparna had finished overall first in the 338 km run at Vineyard Ultra 2025 held in Nashik. She also won the women’s race of the Border 100-mile run held in December 2024. She has been running events for the past few months including marathons and ultra runs.

Arti Agrawal, who finished second in the women’s 24-hour race, had entered the event with very little training.  “ I have a full-time job and a family to take care of,” she said. But she did a few ultra runs including the 100-mile race of Border Ultra 2024, Adani Ahmedabad Marathon 2024, Tata Mumbai Marathon 2025, Jaipur Marathon 2025 and Tata Ultra 2025. “ I took these races as my training runs for the 24-hour run,” she said. During the stipulated 24 hours, Arti covered a distance of 182.8 km.

Geeno Antony, who secured the top position in the men’s 24-hour run also went through a vigorous 10-week training program before the event. “ This time around my training plan was designed by Santhosh Padmanabhan (also the manager of the Indian ultra runners’ team). Training included very long runs leading to a weekly mileage of 200-220 km sometimes,” he said.

As part of his training, Geeno did a 10-hour run, four night runs and four six-hour runs.

“ On race day, I started conservatively so as to stay consistent through the 24 hours. But I did lose the last 50 minutes due to an injury. It was a setback to lose that time but my coach asked to me to stop, a prudent decision in hindsight,” Geeno said. He covered a distance of 238.8 km, a new personal record of 300 meters.

Velu Perumal, who finished second in the 24-hour race, was targeting a distance of 245-250 km but finished with 233.2 km. Having done much of his training in the cool climate of Ooty, Velu did find the daytime heat at the Bengaluru stadium difficult. Velu, an army man, is now posted at the Military Hospital at Coonoor in Ooty. His training went off well with inputs from Santhosh Padmanabhan and support from Brigadier Muthana, Military Hospital Commandant.

Sugourav Goswami, who finished third behind Velu, had also stepped up his training ahead of going into the race. “ I had the longest training session with higher intensity, increased distance and time. I was running a distance of 150-170 km every week,” he said. Sugourav, who finishing third, covered a distance of 226 km, thereby qualifying for the World Championship. To qualify for the IAU 24-Hour World Championship, male runners have to cover a distance of 225 km and women runners 180 km during a 24 hour run, as per Indian Athletics guidelines.

“ My race went as per plan, near perfect. As I train around a lake in Bengaluru, I was used to running in a loop,” Sugourav said. But the long hours did prove challenging. The Bengaluru-based ultra-runner has participated in many ultra-running events. This run was his first ever stadium run. “ The longest time I had been on my feet in a running event was 18 hours. At the stadium run, I did find the last few hours tough. I struggled in the last three hours,” he said. He had devised his own training plan.

In the 12-hour women’s race Bindu Juneja was the winner covering a distance of 108.8 km. “ This was a personal best for me but I am tad disappointed that I could not break the national record of 111.8 km (currently held by Ashwini Ganapathi),” she said.

Her training was executed very well with guidance from Santhosh but on race day she did face some gut issues. Nevertheless, in the last one hour of the race, Bindu managed to cover 10.5 km to take her total mileage to 108.8 km.

The 100 km race was won by Jayadrath who finished in 7:59:33.

The NEB organized stadium run in Bengaluru was held to enable ultra-runners qualify for the upcoming IAU 24 Hour World Championship.

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