Gopi Thonakal became the first Indian man to win the Asian Marathon Championship on Sunday. He achieved the feat in the 16th edition of the event in Dongguan, China.

The Indian runner finished the marathon with a time 2 hours 15 minutes and 48 seconds to clinch the gold medal. Andrey Petrov of Uzbekistan bagged the silver with a timing of 2:15:51s while Byambalev Tseveenravdan of Mongolia won bronze by clocking 2:16:14s.

His finish in China was short short of his personal best. His best timing was clocked at the the Rio Olympics in 2016 where he had finished 25th with a time of 2 hr 15 minutes and 25 seconds.

Gopi also became the first Indian man to win the title after the formation of separate Asian Marathon championships. Earlier Asha Agarwal won the women’s title when it was part of the biennial Asian Track & Field Championships.

Earlier this year, Gopi had finished a decent 28th in the men’s marathon at the World Athletics Championship in London.

With inputs from PTI