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In the competition amongst the Indian Male elite runners, Lakshmanan G sprinted to come first at the ninth TCS World 10K.
The race was a 'sprinters race' with no clear leader till beyond the 8KM mark where it looked liked the defending champion Suresh Patel would retain his crown, till Lakshmanan G sprinted forward in the last one km stretch within the Kanteerava Stadium.
Lakshmanan who clocked a 30:34 was all praise for the new course only hoping for an earlier start time to avoid the harsh morning sun. "It was a very tough race because until the last 500 metres, the leader kept shifting between, Suresh, myself and Nitendra. I was only able to take the lead in the last 500 metres which is why the gap between me and Suresh was only 2 seconds."
Olympic Qualifier Nitendra Singh Rawat, who came in third at 30:53 was honest about his lack of experience in a short distance run, stating, "I planned my run like I would plan a marathon, building pace for the first half of the run, followed by a sprint in the second half. This did not work as planned, , as I stayed with the pack for the majority race, however, when they made their final sprints, I was unable to keep up with the winner - but this was a great race."
Women's category
Swati Gadhave led the race from start to finish, ending her 10KM sprint, at 34:45 more than a minute ahead of second place Sanjeevani Yadav who clocked 36:13. Swati paced with the International Elite Athletes running with their pack through most of the race much to the viewers delight and ended amongst the top ten overall Women Finishers.
Sharing her thoughts on the race, Swati said, " The climate wasn't an issue, even though I landed only last night from Denmark after an international competition." Coming a distant second to Swathi, was Sanjeevani Jadhav at 36:13 who was delighted with her finish, and "honoured" to be running among some of the most respected women in her category. Completing the trio on the podium was Meenu at 37:18 whose youthful exuberance was the clear reason she was amongst the top three.
The women weren't as critical of the humid Bengaluru weather on offer as the men but the exertion of the athletes was clear as everyone looked exhausted post crossing the finish line.
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