Kolkata: World record holder in 5000m and 10,000m Ethiopian Kenenisa Bekele will lead a strong field of 39 elite athletes in the TSK 25K international here Sunday.
The international field of 16 athletes, eight each for men and women, will be led by Bekele, who has won over 21 Olympic and world titles and has broken six senior world records in a career of more than eight years. Bekele, however, will face stiff competition from Robert Chemonges of Uganda and Agustino Sulle of Tanzania. Helah Kiprop and Valentine Kipketer from Kenya are the marquee runners in the women’s field.
The Indian contingent will be led by course record holder G Lakshmanan in the men’s and L Surya and defending champion Monika Athare in the women’s section.
The event will also boast of a raised prize purse of USD 1,00,000 and the face of the event is city’s cricket icon Sourav Ganguly.
Terming this a proud moment for the city, Ganguly said: “We have set benchmarks in many fields and this is our chance to raise the bar when it comes to health and fitness and distance running.”
The Indian contingent consist of 12 men and 11 women with Lakshmanan, Kalidas Hirave and Avinash Sable leading the men’s event.
Lakshmanan is hoping that the presence of Bekele will spur him to better the course record of 1:17:16.0 seconds he set last year. “Running with Bekele is a big thing for me. You improve when you go up against a good field and so, I am hopeful of improving my timing tomorrow (Sunday),” said the 27-year-old, a double Asian champion having won the 5,000m and 10,000m gold medals at the Asian Athletic Championship in Bhubaneswar last July.
Meanwhile, defending champion (among Indians) Monika, Swatee Gadhave, Jyoti Gawte and Monika Raut make up for a very strong women’s contingent.
Monika, who won the race here last year, is however coming at the back of a full marathon from which she has not yet fully recovered.
“After the marathon my body gave up. It has taken me three months to recover physically. But I don’t think I have recovered fully yet. But the track here is nice and flat and I hope to run a good race here. I will be happy to complete the distance and to do it within my target would be fabulous,” said Monika.
Press trust of India
