Telangana’s Ramesh, Maharashtra’s Prajakta winners of Hyderabad half-marathon

Telangana's Ramesh Chandra and Maharashtra's Prajakta Godbole won men's and women's categories respectively in Hyderabad half-marathon. Sachin Tendulkar felicitated the winners. Ageas Federal Life Insurance was title sponsor.

Telangana’s B. Ramesh Chandra and Maharashtra’s Prajakta Godbole clinched honours in men’s and women’s categories respectively in the Ageas Federal Life Insurance Hyderabad half-marathon (HHM) here on Sunday.

Ramesh Chandra clocked 21.1 kms in one hour 13 minutes and 10 seconds to be crowned the champion whereas Satish Kumar (1:15:50) and Piyush Masane (1:16:56) finished second and third respectively.

In the women’s section, 28-year-old Prajakta re-asserted her reputation as one of India’s top distance runners with a timing of one hour 23 minutes and 45 seconds with Preenu Yadav (1:24:46) and Tejaswini Umbkane (1:25:11) finished second and third respectively.

Earlier, cricket legend and brand ambassador of Ageas Federal Life Insurance, Sachin Tendulkar, flagged off the events, which featured over 8,000 runners. Sachin, along with chief national badminton coach P. Gopi Chand, felicitated the winners. “I congratulate the winners of this edition of the Hyderabad half-marathon. I am pleased to see such an impressive turnout and congratulate not just the winners but everyone who participated across all the categories with the determination to ‘run ageless run fearless’,” Tendulkar said.

“It is our pleasure to be part of the HHM as title sponsor. Our goal is to make it even bigger in the future editions so that a fearless culture of running seeps in among the youth,” Vighnesh Shahane, MD and CEO, Ageas Federal Life Insurance, said. “We thank all the participants and encourage the enthusiasts to keep running through the year,” he added.

The Timed 10K was a straight fight between Chetan Kumar (0:34:21) and Bharat Singh (0:35:13) for the most part, before Chetan surged into the lead to take the crown. Nikhil Erigila (0:35:24) came in a commendable third. Among women, Sheelu Yadav (0:41:34) was the clear winner, taking the title with a big margin of 7 minutes. Muskan (0:48:29) and Yankey Dukpa (0:50:04) finished second and third.