The steel city will be represented for the first time in a full marathon at the 17th edition of Tata Mumbai Marathon, an IAAF (International Association of Athletics Federations) gold label event, scheduled on Sunday.
Label races are designated as leading races around the world and gold label events have the strictest requirements.
After gruelling practice sessions for over a year, seven amateurs from diverse backgrounds had succeeded in completing the 25km distance at the Tata Steel Kolkata Marathon in December 2019.
“All the seven of us, nicnamed Dhaavaks, completed the Calcutta Marathon with an average timing of 2 hours 40 minutes. We applied online for the Tata Mumbai Marathon and after scrutiny all our applications were accepted. We are excited as this would be the first time amateur runners from Jamshedpur would be competing in a full marathon (42.19km) anywhere in the country,” said Piyush Adesara, 40, owner of a jewellery chain and a resident of Bistupur.
According to sources in the Tata Steel’s athletic wing, for competing in a full marathon, a runner has to submit his chest number in a marathon that he had run in the last one year with a link of the result so that the organisers can check his timings before confirming his entry. The application by Dhaavaks was accepted because they had cleared 25km in Calcutta marathon well within three hours while the qualifying timing for 42.19km Tata Mumbai Marathon is six hours.
Other six members of the Dhaavaks are senior manager HR and corporate services Vibhuti Adesara, 32; architect Nalin Goel, 46; owner of Keshavji Chhaganlal Jewellers Siddharth Adeshara, 38; radiologist Neelam Jain, 37; athletic trainee Raja Babu, 23; and computer operator in the district collectorate Jaswant Rajak, 29.
The group will be leaving for Mumbai by flight on Saturday morning.
Amateur runners were allowed participation in full Mumbai marathon in 2018. The full marathon starts and ends at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus in South Mumbai.
Around 50,000 runners will take to the roads on January 19 across six different races. Apart from the full marathon, the others races are half marathon, 10km race, Dream Run (5.9km), a Senior Citizens Race (4.2km) and a Champions with Disability Race (1.5km).
