India's Gopi Thonakal qualifies for 2019 Athletics World Championships after finishing 11th in Seoul International Marathon

New Delhi: India’s Asian marathon champion Gopi Thonakal has qualified for the Athletics World Championships to be held in Doha in September-October after finishing 11th in the Seoul International Marathon. [caption id=“attachment_4228279” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Gopi Thonakal. Image courtesy: Twitter/@afiindia[/caption] The 30-year-old Gopi clocked his personal best time of 2 hours 13 minutes 39 seconds in the marathon on Sunday, bettering the World Championships qualification mark of 2:16:00. His earlier best was 2:15:16 last year. Gopi’s time is the second best ever by an Indian after the four-decade-old national record of 2:12:00, which is held by Shivnath Singh. Seoul International Marathon is a world-class IAAF Gold label event. Gopi won the Asian marathon title in Dongguan, China in 2017. He finished 25th in the 2016 Olympics. The following year, he took part in the World Championships in London and finished 28th.