BENGALURU: Several runners complained of issues during the 13th edition of the Wipro Bengaluru Marathon in the city on Sunday. The unavailability of drinking water was the main problem faced by some of the participants.
"Everything was fine till the 10km mark," Ekta Sirohi, a runner who took part in the half marathon, told this daily. "After that, though, I came across water stations that were out of water. Highly disappointed." Sirohi added that for the remainder of her race, she saw runners who were given water by people who had come out to support.
The other issue was with respect to the merging of participants on a single road. "After around 17 or 18 kms of my race, we were merged into a single line along with runners from the 5k and 10k races. That clearly affected my performance because some of the participants in those races were either first-timers or they had young kids with them," Sirohi added.
The issues around crowding and the lack of water became a big talking point on social media as well with a lot of participants flagging these concerns as soon as the half-marathon ended. Apart from the half-marathon, 10K, 5K and the full marathon were also held.
Winners: Elite men: Bugatha Srinu (2:22.53), Elite women: Bhagirathi (3:00.18), Half marathon: Ankit Gupta (men): 1:09.12;Sugandha Sharma (women): 1:34.55.