Mumbai: For elite athletes, coaching for the Tata Mumbai Marathon requires particular plans. In spite of everything, the 42.135 km course within the metropolis is not like many venues, and isn’t probably the most best for quick timings.
Ethiopian long-distance runner Hayle Lemi Berhanu is the defending champion of Tata Mumbai Marathon. (Nitin Lawate)
An ideal course could be flat, and that may imply quick timings. However the Mumbai course has two gradients because the athletes run by means of the Malabar Hill space. There’s the crosswind of the ocean hyperlink that must be tackled. However probably the most difficult facet is the warmth because the race progresses.
For that, Hayle Lemi Berhanu, the two-time defending champion from Ethiopia, moved to Akaki Kality, a district simply south of capital Addis Ababa, to organize for Sunday’s race.
“The weather there is warmer and not very different from Mumbai,” mentioned the 30-year-old runner, who’s aiming to turn into the primary particular person to win three consecutive Mumbai Marathons, at a pre-race press convention.
“It also helps that I know the course very well. I have prepared for that and I have been waiting for a long time for this event. I want to make it three wins in a row.”
Berhanu comes with a formidable file in marathon working. Of his 24 profession marathons, he has received 11, three of which got here final yr alone – in Mumbai, Prague and Beijing.
His first look in Mumbai, in 2023, noticed him break the course file when he clocked 2 hours 07 minutes 32 seconds. Final yr he received the race clocking 2:07:50. This yr, he’s hoping to do higher.
His key challenger once more is the person he beat final yr, Kenya’s Philemon Rono. Like Berhanu, Rono too has altered his coaching routine to organize for Mumbai, at his base in Kenya’s Rift Valley area that’s well-known for its distance runners.
“I would generally train early morning at my base in Iten,” he mentioned. “But in the last month I’ve started training at around 10 AM to 1 PM to acclimatise to the sun.”
One runner who doesn’t have an issue working beneath the solar is the defending ladies’s champion Abersh Minsewo.
The Ethiopian, in her first-ever marathon, clinched the title in Mumbai, clocking 2:26:01, her private finest.
“I like the heat,” she mentioned forward of the race.
The 23-year-old, who received the ladies’s 3000m on the 2017 U-18 World Championships, is making an attempt to push herself additional within the marathon.
Defending Indian champions return
Each the lads’s and girls’s defending champions amongst Indians have returned.
Srinu Bugatha clocked 2:17:29 final yr to win the title for the primary time, whereas Nirmaben Thakor Bharatjee took the ladies’s crown with a time of two:47:11.
With qualification for the 2025 World Championships in thoughts, all of the runners will probably be trying to push themselves to earn a spot within the prestigious occasion scheduled in Tokyo in September.
The entry requirements specify that males should clock 2:06:30 and girls 2:23:30 to qualify on time. India’s nationwide information are 2:12:00 and a couple of:34:43 respectively.