Armyman Yadav races 'with' the bigwigs

MUMBAI: You don't always compete against others. In fact, you sometimes compete with them. That's the beauty of sport. Ram Singh Yadav surely experienced that at the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon 2009 on Sunday.
Running the full marathon, the Army Sports Institute athlete from Uttar Pradesh, made it three-in-a-row among Indian men by clocking 2:18:03.He was 11th in the overall list of finishers and took home a prize money of $2,500.
ASI's Deep Chand, a half-marathoner-turned-full marathoner, came second in 2:26:01 (overall 21st) while yet another ASI runner, Narender Singh, was third clocking 2:26:41 (overall 23rd).
The victory was undoubtedly special as the seasoned Yadav easily achieved the Olympic cut-off of 2:18:00. Unfortunately, he had missed the plane to Beijing by a mere three seconds last year.
With the Commonwealth Games not very far away and the qualifying mark expected to be around the 2 hour 20 minute-mark, Yadav will certainly fancy his chances of donning Indian colours in New Delhi.
He will have to do a repeat of his super Sunday show sometime next year as the CWG 2010 will take into consideration the result of the nearest race. That shouldn't be an issue given his current form and the string of impressive timings.
However, what fascinated the seasoned Yadav most was his tryst with the leading pack during the race. In what can be rightfully termed as sportsman's spirit, an African athlete, whose name and bib number the Indian doesn't remember, asked Yadav to join the bunch.
"I think he was Kenyan. I don't remember his name though. He looked behind and saw me a few meters apart and told me to 'come here'. This was near Worli when we were into the 13th km," Yadav recalled.
Yadav's morale was sky-high and his pace was obviously upped for the next 10 km or so. "I kept up the speed and ran alongside them. But after the Bandra turn, I experienced tightness and finally broke off the bunch after the 25th kilometre."