Chhagan Bombale retains men’s title, Bharti wins women’s event

Chhagan Bombale of Maharashtra won the 7th edition of the Mumbai Half Marathon men’s event for the second year in succession, on Sunday. The 22-year-old, a third-year BA student, completed the 21 km distance in a time of 1:12.14 an improvement of more than four minutes over his winning effort in the 2022 edition.
The women’s half marathon (21.1k) was comfortably won by the 25-year-old Bharti from Sonepat, Haryana, who breasted the tape in a creditable 1:19.19 after taking the lead at the halfway stage. Finishing nearly two minutes behind was Prajakta Godbole in 1:21.08, while Prajakta Shinde trooped in third in 1:21.27. Bombale, who was running well within himself in the initial stages, surged forward at the 10-km mark and built up a comfortable lead over the chasing pack. Dheeraj Yadav strove hard to bridge the gap but had to be content with the second position, finishing less than half a minute behind the winner in 1:12.41. Anant Gaonkar completed the podium line-up in third place in 1:14.03.In the men’s 10 km, Bhavishya Kaushik clinched the top honours with a decent time of 31.11 minutes. Akshay Kumar took the silver in 32.10 minutes and Atul Barde won the bronze in 32.33 minutes. The women’s 10 km was won by Sonali Desai in 39.56 minutes while Sakshi Bhandari breezed in second in 42.20 minutes and Padma Karande was third in 42.57 minutes. The event’s brand ambassador is cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar. Legendary Indian cricketer flagged off the Mumbai Half Marathon from the Jio Garden, Bandra Kurla Complex. The half marathon (21.1k) started at 5:30 am, the 10k at 6:25 am and the 5k at 8:00 am. The presence of the legendary cricketer made the ambience at the event even more exciting and one to remember for local residents, who participated in the marathon. The event was organised by Ageas Federal Life Insurance.Talking about the increased level of participation in such marathons, Sachin told media persons, “It is a reflection of how we are thinking and taking our health seriously. It’s a positive step towards a healthy nation.”
Over 20,000 runners from all walks of life take part in the Mumbai Half Marathon 2023. This edition has the highest number of registrations for the event across six editions. Over 5100 athletes are registered for the prestigious half marathon, 9000 for the 10k run and 5900 for the 5k distance in both men’s and women’s divisions.