Mumbai Marathon: Indians disappoint with below par timings

MUMBAI: For a road-running race celebrating its 10th birthday, the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon couldn't have asked for better gifts.The weather stayed cool, the humiditywas a bearable 50%. Two new course records were set - one by a marathon debutantfrom Uganda and the other by a Kenyan running only the second long distance raceof her career. The latter's timing was also the world's best this season.The jarring note, amid the euphoria, was the Indian runners 'performance. Lyngkhoi Binning of Army Sports Institute won the Indian men'stitle, his third in the SCMM, but his timing of 2:21.51 was too slow, even byhis own standards. On the distaff side, Lalita Babbar managed to retain hertitle in 2:53.42, which was slower than what she ran last year in hotter andmore humid conditions (2:53.35). This, despite the SCMM organisers announcingenhanced prize money and an incentive of Rs 100,000 for an Indian course record.Binning himself can't fathom what went wrong. "I trained really hardfor this race. There are no fitness issues either. In training the timings aregood, but I don't know why I can't force the pace here. The weather was goodtoo, so there are no excuses for me really. I think we were doing well till the30km mark, but thereafter I couldn't increase the pace despite trying my best,"says the armyman. ASI coach KS Mathew, a former long-distance runner, who has been involved in the training of army runners for nearly two decades now, had another take. "Our best runners are training in Goa for the upcoming Cross-country Nationals (to be held in February). I think their presence could have made a difference to our timings. Also, Ram Singh Yadav's pullout affected our strategy. He's our fastest runner, and he sets the pace for others," he says. Barring a few, a big chunk of the Indian marathoners belong tothe army, and are given specialised training in distance running under a Cubancoach at the ASI in Pune."I was definitely expecting better timingsfrom our runners. It all boils down to the last five or six kilometres of therace. That's where you need to put in that extra bit to break away from therest. But they have been failing to do that, and that's affecting theirtimings," says Hiram Lamadrid, the Cuban coach who has been with the ASI forclose to a decade now. Jos Hermens, whose Dutch firm Global Sports Communication will be providing international elite athletes to SCMM from this year, feels specialised training abroad could make a big difference."See how the Ugandans have been faring in recent months.Most of them now train in camps in Kenya, run with Kenyan runners, and theirtimings have improved dramatically. Your federation should pick good andtalented young runners and send them to such camps. Just two-three months won'thelp. It should be at least for a one year duration. But that's something yourgovernment and federation have to decide," says the Dutchman.Thepoint is does anyone really care?