MUMBAI: Every Olympic year, the Mumbai Marathon, which resembles more of a public festival, takes on a more serious tone. Indian athletes come to the city of dreams hoping to hit the Olympic mark. Four years ago, pacemaker T Gopi, who went on to complete the marathon, and Kheta Ram made the qualification standard. With Nitendra Singh Rawat having already made the Olympic cut, it would be the first time since 1960 that three Indian men would be competing at the marathon event at the Games.
This year is unlikely to see an encore. For starters, India's biggest names in the marathon, Rawat and Gopi, are not competing due to injury. In a sorely depleted Indian field, Sudha Singh is the only Olympian. But having suffered a stress fracture in September, the 33-year-old is still on a comeback trail and is unlikely to go for the qualifying time, which has been lowered considerably from 2:45 to 2:29.30, for the Tokyo Games.
"I wanted to qualify for the Olympics here, but I haven't trained that much," Sudha said on Saturday. "I had an injury in September and joined the national camp in Patiala only on December 14. Right now, I don't want to push too hard. Here no matter what, whether it's cooler than the rest of the months or we run in the morning, we end up running in the sun. It does get humid."
Last year, Sudha had clocked her personal best and shattered the course record as she completed the 42.5k-run in 2:34:56. She has to shave five minutes off her timing to be in contention for the Olympics and is hoping to achieve the mark at the Seoul Marathon on March 22.
She also said that she would be prioritising the marathon over the steeplechase this time around. Sudha had qualified for and competed in the 3000m steeplechase at the Rio Olympics but could not make it to the finals due to illness.
"It is very important because it's probably going to be my last Olympics," she said. "I prefer doing the marathon this time mainly because of my injury. I have participated in two Olympics. I want to do better in the third."
In the elite field, Kenyan Cosmos Lagat and Ethiopia's Worknesh Alemu will return to defend their titles.
Lagat, 29, had missed out on a course record in 2019, clocking 2:09:15, while the course record stands at 2:08:35. On Sunday, the Kenyan will be running in the controversial Nike Vaporfly shoes and hoping to bridge that gap.