Six elite runners clocked impressive times at the New Delhi Marathon on Sunday, to qualify for the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games.
Olympian Nitendra Singh Rawat led the charge with an impressive timing of 2:16.05. Anish Thapa Magar (2:16.41) and Anil Kumar Singh (2:16.47) claimed the first and second runners-up positions in what turned out to be an intense battle for supremacy.
The qualifying times for the Commonwealth Games in July-August is 2:18:40 for men and 2:38:19 for women and for the Asian Games in September, it is 2:18:48 and 2:39.28 respectively.
Ashish Kumar (2:17.04), AB Belliappa (2:17.09) and Kalidas Laxman Hirave (2:18.14) were the other three men who went under the qualifying times to make the cut.
The marathon was recognised as the National Marathon Championship by the Athletics Federation of India.
