India's Gopi Thonakal, Monika Athare retain New Delhi Marathon titles

New Delhi: Reigning Asian Champion Gopi Thonakal ran his personal best to retain his title at the IDBI Federal Life Insurance New Delhi Marathon on Sunday. Gopi clocked 2 hours, 15 minutes and 16 seconds to clinch the gold under ideal running conditions but missed the tough Commonwealth Games qualification mark set by the Athletics Federation of India. [caption id=“attachment_4228279” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File photo of Gopi Thonakal. Image courtesy: Twitter/@afiindia[/caption] Nitendra Singh Rawat was second in 2:24:55 while Bahadur Singh Dhoni took the bronze in 2:24:56. The 4:30 am start time of the race at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, flagged off by cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar, gave the runners an ideal temperature of just over 15 degree Celsius — around 18 degree when the race ended — and Gopi was able to better his earlier best of 2:15:25 (clocked during 2016 Olympics) by nine seconds. The 29-year-old Gopi’s effort was, however, well outside the 2:12:50 qualification standard of the AFI for the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games. He had won the title last year in 2:15:37. Gopi had won the Asian Marathon title in China in November last year with a time of 2:15:48. In the women’s event also, Monika Athare retained her title, clocking 2:43:46, ahead of last edition silver medallist Jyoti Gawte (2:50:12) and Monica Raut (2:55:02). Around 65 elite Indian athletes took part in the full marathon of 42.195km.