New Delhi Marathon: Jyoti to defend her title, Srinu Bugatha targets Asian Games berth

The national capital is gearing up to host the top runners from the world to take part in the upcoming New Delhi Marathon on 26th February 2023.

Preview

The venue of the marathon is Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium. Organised under the aegis of the Athletics Federation of India, the marathon will have four categories- 5km, 10km, 21.1km, and 42.2km.

Apollo Tyres is the Title Sponsor; Enerjiva is the Hydration partner, and will be giving electrolytes every kilometre in the route, making sure the runners are well fuelled to get their best timings.

The top Indian runners including Srinu Bugatha, A Belliappa, and Jyoti Singh Gawate, will aim to qualify for the Hangzhou Asian Games after AFI confirmed this to be the Asian Games qualifying series event.

The qualifying timing for the marathon to be selected for the Asian Games is 2:15.00 (for men) and 2:37.00 (for women)

Jyoti Singh Gawate will be defending the title she won last year with a timing of 3:01.20.

Organized by NEB Sports, as many as 16,000 participants will compete in the Apollo Tyres New Delhi Marathon. In addition, over 50,000 others will also be running in the virtual marathon from different parts of the world over five days, starting on February 21. The event will also see differently-abled people participating along with the rest of the runners.

The ambassador for the Delhi Marathon will be decorated long-distance runner David Rudisha. The Kenyan runner is a two-time Olympic gold medallist (2012, 2016), and also has a couple of World Championships gold medals under his belt.

Rudisha is the only runner in the world to have finished 800m in 1 minute 41 seconds.

Prize money

The marathon will have a pool of 3,00,000 INR for the top three in the elite category of Marathon for men and women. The half marathon will have a total pool of 1,12,000 INR for the top three. The 10K run will have a pool of 35,000 INR.