Kolkata: Indian elite athletes, Elam Singh and Olympic qualifier Sudha Singh clinched the men’s and women’s title at Tata Steel Kolkata 25K today at Red Road in the City of Joy, Kolkata on Sunday. The trio Sudha Singh, Lalita Babbar and O P Jaisha smashed the course record by a huge margin, first set by Kavita Raut at 1:33:39 in the first edition of TSK 25K last year.
During the last few months, the Olympic trio have been practicing together and today worked together as a group to maintain their pace. After the 23 Kms mark, Sudha and Lalita took the lead towards the finish line, leaving Jaisha few minutes behind. In the last one km, Sudha sprinted towards the finish line and clocked01:27:31 winning the women’s crown with a new course record with Lalita coming a close 2nd at 1:27:47.
When Sudha was asked about her performance and winning the TSK 25K title for the first time, she said “It is better from last year as last year I was not in practice as I was at home. This time I trained at the camp”.
I ran a good race, the last 2 kms we had our cooling period. We have put equal concentration for each race. We have been practicing consistently and this was like a practice session for me. This 25K Run has benefited us for Mumbai marathon added Sudha Singh. In addition to the prize money of Rs Rs 2,50,000, Sudha also received a bonus of Rs 50,000.
The second edition of TSK 25K, saw a whopping increase in the number of serious runners taking the total number of participants to 8,208. This includes 996 in 25K, 2859 in Open 10K, which more than double than last year, 3996 in the Ananda Run, 113 in the Senior Citizen and in Champions with Disability is 172.
Lalita who has defeated both Sudha and Jaisha in ADHM 2015 last month and was happy with the runners-up position with a time of 01:27:47 inspite of a knee injury. When asked about missing the title by a few seconds, she said “I have had knee pain which slowed me down after 10 Kms. It is difficult to run back to back races with a gap of less than 20 days in between. This 25K run is a practice session before Mumbai Marathon and Mumbai Marathon will be a practice session for me for Rio. After the marathon I will concentrate on my steeple chase performance.” She added, “I am not upset with my knee pain. We are in sports where anyone can face injury. No sport is injury free.”
Elam Singh, Srinu Bugatha and O Sanaton Singh had tough competition amongst themselves. All three ran neck to neck through-out the race and finally Elam finished 1st by clocking 01:20:14 followed by Srinu Bugatha at 01:20:16, missing out on the title by mere two seconds. O Sanaton Singh title favorite clocked 3rd at 01:20:23.
Elam Singh, a runner up here at TSK 25k 2014, who is eyeing a Rio Olympic qualification, said, “I am feeling proud and satisfied with the performance as I won the title this year which was missed last year by few seconds.”
When he was asked about his future plans he said, “I am aiming to win the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon 2016 in January as that timing will decide the Olympic entrance and want to finish the race before qualifying time.”
Srinu Bugatha , runner-up of TSK 25K 2015 men’s category said “It was a great experience for me running with such experienced runners. You get to learn from them.”
To provide the TSK 25K runners an enhanced running experience, number of facilities and initiatives were undertaken which included PUMA Warm-up Zone, Volini recovery zone , post event refreshments, Finishers medal among others. The TSK 25 was ignited with a very special warm up session hosted by PUMA with -Cricketer Yuvraj Singh, Marathon Veteran Neha Dhupia and Running expert Shayamal Vallabhjee.
Present at the start line were eminent personalities from city including His Excellency the Hon’ble Governor of West Bengal Shri Keshari Nath Tripathi, Mr. T.V.Narendran- MD, Tata Steel India & SEA, Mr. Sunil Bhaskaran- VP Corporate Services Tata Steel, Puyush Gupta- VP - Steel (Marketing & Sales) Tata Steel, Dev- face of the event , Neha Dhupia- Fitness enthusiast and PUMA athlete, Yuraj Singh, cricketer and PUMA athlete, Actress Rituparna Sengupta & Moubani Sarkar, Sultan Ahmed, Hon’ble MP and working president WBAA, Arup Biswas – Hon’ble Sports & Youth Affairs Minister, DR. Shashi Panja – Hon’ble Minister for Social Welfare & Child Development, Trilochan Singh, IAS, Additional Chief Secretary West Bengal, Rajesh Pandey, Principal Secretary Sports & Youth Affairs Department, Govt. Of West Bengal, Major General Ashok Kumar, Chief of Staff, Bengal Area, West Bengal, Rajiv Mishra, Jt. Commissioner of Police, Headquarters, Kolkata, Dr. Sudhir Mishra, IPS, Additional Director General of Police , Debasish Kumar, MMIC, Sports, Parks and Advertisements, KMC and Dibyendu Barua- chess Grandmaster.
Following are the results:
Indian Elite Men:
Elam Singh (IND) 01:20:14; Srinu Bugatha (IND) 01:20:16; O Sanaton Singh (IND) 01:20:23; Berendra Kumar (IND) 01:20:27; Vikas Kumar (IND) 01:20:34; Suleman (IND) 01:22:42; Dhanwant Prahlad (IND) 01:23:46.
Indian Elite Women:
Sudha Singh (IND) 01:27:31 (NCR); Lalita Babar (IND) 01:27:41 (NCR); O P Jaisha (IND) 01:28:05; Seema (IND) 01:38:31; Sindhu Yadav (IND) 01:40:32; Amandeep Kaur (IND) 01:48:39; Anisha Devi (IND) 01:50:13.
Police Cup:
Winner: Team 5: (Sandip Datta & Toyasin Molla) 00:38:54.
1st Runner up: Team 12 (SK Sukchand & Md Wazed Ali) 00:40:50.
2nd Runner up: Team 15 (Dipankar Mandal & Sagar Mukhiya) 00:41:45.
9:59.
25K Amateur results:
Women (35 yrs to u–40 yrs) : Shailja Sridhar 02:01:29; Sonalia Pal 02:17:43; Piyali Dolui 02:32:27
Women (40 to u-45 yrs): Bula Mondal 02:29:28; Sarita Chowdhury 02:53:32
Men (45yrs to u-50 yrs): Satyabrata Mallik 01:38:56; Mohamed Idris 01:39:01; Bikhyat Deuri 01:46:29
Women (45yrs to u-50 yrs): Sumedha Sarogi 02:58:23; Bundu Panchal 02:58:28.
Men (50yrs to u-55 yrs): Ranjit Mahato 01:42:58; Tarun Kumar Sharma 01:58:21; Ravinder Singh Rajput 02:10:05
Women (50 yrs to u-55 yrs): Niessha Bubna 02:40:52, Premlata Agrawal 03:21:48, Sukla Roy 03:43:15
Men (55 yrs to u-60 years): Karl Furthmaier 01:58:08, Mohinder Virk 02:22:26, Anant Anantharam 02:28:17.
Women (55 yrs to u-60 yrs): ILa Dutta Singh 02:54:03
Men (60 yrs to u-65 yrs): Sabhajeet Yadav 01:50:44, Ram Avtar 02:03:30, Ashutosh Roy 02:12:11.
Men (65 yrs and above) Navalkishor Yadav 01:49:46, Mahadev Samjiskar 02:30:34, Arun Kumar Singh 02:33:25.
Men (60 yrs to u-65 yrs): Sabhajeet Yadav 01:50:44, Ram Avtar 02:03:30, Ashutosh Roy 02:12:11.
10K Amateur results:
Men (15yrs to u-25 yrs): Sujith Subramaniyam 00:30:58; Saurabh Singh 00:32:20; Vijay Kumar Bedia 00:32:21
Women (15yrs to u-25 yrs): Puja Mondal 00:39:53; Sahanara Khatoon 00:39:55; Basanti Ghosh 00:43:20
Men (25yrs to u-35 yrs): Sushil Chandra 00:33:58; Biraj Kongari 00:34:20; Sahadat Ali 00:34:59
Women (25yrs to u-35 yrs): Nupur Tikmany 00:54:12; Harsha Pandey 00:59:22; Vatsala Singhal 01:00:00
Men (35 to u- 45 yrs) Sanjay Dasila 00:36:15; Prithwish Banerjee 00:39:50; Ibrahim Mozoouz 00:40:41
Women (35 to u-45 yrs): Fulam Khatun 00:40:20; Jayanti Thapliyal 00:43:57; Anuradha Dutt 00:53:58
Men (45 to u-55 years): Dinesh Kumar 00:36:18; Awatar Singh 00:42:37; Azvind Kumer Mirhra 00:42:39
Women (45 to u-55 years) :Pooja Goenka 01:07:33; Shalini Karnani 01:08:05; Gita Balakrishnan 01:12:42
Men (55 to u- 65 years): Manvir Shah 00:42:42; Somnath Sengupta 00:52:04; Mani Kumar Sarkar 00:52:13
Women (55yrs to u- 65 yrs): Indira Anklesaria 01:00:12.
Men (65 yrs to above): Dulal Ahiri 00:54:17; Gourav Anthoney 01:13:19; Goverdhan Das Agarwal 01:23:01
Jabong Run in Costume:
Being us!!
Winner: Shrimad Ramchandra Love & Care
(Runner up): Team Cry-Ensuring Child Rights Get Healthy & Give Healthy
