Bangalore: Indian long distance running ace Ram Singh Yadav will be using the TCS World 10K Bangalore on Sunday as a time trial, part of his build-up to the marathon in the London Olympics and he hopes to also finish among the winners from a strong and talented Indian men’s elite athlete field. The Indian men and women were in a meet & greet session with the media at the event’s media center.
Besides individual glory, the athletes will also be fighting for honour in the Nation’s Challenge, which will see participation from 27 states.
The teams will comprise two male and one female athlete and the winner in the Nation’s Challenge will stand to gain Rs 4.50 lakh, with the runner-up teams winning Rs 3.25 lakh, followed by 2.15 lakh and 1.10 lakh. The individual male and female winners will stand to gain Rs 1 lakh each, with prize money up to the first five places.
Yadav, who achieved the qualifying mark at the Mumbai Marathon, another of the international events promoted by Procam International, said, “The TCS World 10K will be a perfect platform to improve my performance and will be useful for time trials before the Olympics”.
“I have always enjoyed running in Bangalore in the company of some of the world’s best athletes and I look forward to another exciting race,” Yadav added.
Yadav will have for competition the 22-year-old defending champion Suresh Kumar, who is looking to not only retain his crown but also improve upon his last year’s time of 30.17 minutes.
The other leading Indian men in the fray are B C Tilak, Rati Ram Saini, Kheta Ram, Santosh Kumar, V L Dangi and Soji Mathew, to name a few.
In the absence of defending champion Kavita Raut and fancied names Sudha Singh and Preeja Sreedharan, the Indian women’s challenge will be headed by another big name, Lalita Babbar. Babbar, whose favourite event is the half marathon, but possesses a good turn of speed is also confident of doing well on Sunday.
The women's category also has some promising new talent in Archana Pal, Monica Athre, Priyanka Patel and Kiran Tiwari, among others.
Priyanka Patel and Archana Pal have been practicing with the international steeplechase champion Sudha Singh and gathered some valuable tips from her. Both the athletes have been supported by their families and are working hard to achieve their goals in the field of athletics. Another performer to look forward to is Kiran tiwari who has been a consistent performance for the various marathons. “I am happy to be here and have been training very hard for the last two months,” said Kiran.
