Sudha Singh and Elam Singh clinch Tata Steel Kolkata 25K 2015 Titles

INDIAN ELITE ATHLETES, Elam Singh and Olympic qualifier Sudha Singh clinched the men’s and women’s title at Tata Steel Kolkata 25K today at Red Road in the City of Joy, Kolkata on Sunday. The trio Sudha Singh, Lalita Babbar and O P Jaisha smashed the course record by a huge margin, first set by Kavita Raut at 1:33:39 in the first edition of TSK 25K last year.
 
During the last few months, the Olympic trio have been practicing together and today worked together as a group to maintain their pace. After the 23 Kms mark, Sudha and Lalita took the lead towards the finish line, leaving Jaisha few minutes behind. In the last one km, Sudha sprinted towards the finish line and clocked01:27:31 winning the women’s crown with a new course record with Lalita coming a close 2nd at 1:27:47.
 
When Sudha was asked about her performance and winning the TSK 25K title for the first time, she said

“It is better from last year as last year I was not in practice as I was at home. This time I trained at the camp”. 

I ran a good race, the last 2 kms we had our cooling period. We have put equal concentration for each race. We have been practicing consistently and this was like a practice session for me. This 25K Run has benefited us for Mumbai marathon added Sudha Singh. In addition to the prize money of Rs Rs 2,50,000, Sudha also received a bonus of Rs 50,000.
 
 The second edition of TSK 25K, saw a whopping increase in the number of serious runners taking the total number of participants to 8,208. This includes 996 in 25K, 2859 in Open 10K, which more than double than last year, 3996 in the Ananda Run, 113 in the Senior Citizen and in Champions with Disability is 172.
 
Lalita who has defeated both Sudha and Jaisha in ADHM 2015 last month and was happy with the runners-up position with a time of 01:27:47 inspite of a knee injury. When asked about missing the title by a few seconds, she said

“I have had knee pain which slowed me down after 10 Kms. It is difficult to run back to back races with a gap of less than 20 days in between. This 25K run is a practice session before Mumbai Marathon and Mumbai Marathon will be a practice session for me for Rio. After the marathon I will concentrate on my steeple chase performance.” She added, “I am not upset with my knee pain. We are in sports where anyone can face injury. No sport is injury free.” 

Elam Singh, Srinu Bugatha and O Sanaton Singh had tough competition amongst themselves. All three ran neck to neck through-out the race and finally Elam finished 1st by clocking 01:20:14 followed by Srinu Bugatha at 01:20:16, missing out on the title by mere two seconds. O Sanaton Singh title favorite clocked 3rd at01:20:23.
 
Elam Singh, a runner up here at TSK 25k 2014, who is eyeing a Rio Olympic qualification, said,

“I am feeling proud and satisfied with the performance as I won the title this year which was missed last year by few seconds.”  

When he was asked about his future plans he said,

“I am aiming to win the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon 2016 in January as that timing will decide the Olympic entrance and want to finish the race before qualifying time.” 

Srinu Bugatha , runner-up of TSK 25K 2015 men’s category said

“It was a great experience for me running with such experienced runners. You get to learn from them.”