Kathmandu, March 2

Krishna Basnet of Tribhuvan Army Club won the title of the fourth CoAS Open Marathon here today.

Defending champion Basnet completed the 42.195km race with the personal best timing of two hours, twenty minutes and 51 seconds. Basnet also broke the Army record beating the previous mark of 2:22:18 held by Purna Tamang.

Along with the gold medal, Basnet got Rs 125,000 and Pulsar motorbike sponsored by Hansaraj Hulaschand Company. Army athletes swept marathon event. Rajan Khatri came second with the timing of 2:28:00, while Nawa Raj Saud was third in 2:29.51. Khatri and Saud earned Rs 65,000 and Rs 35,000 respectively. Two of the main contenders, APF athlete Gopi Chanda Parki and TAC’s Hari Kumar Rimal pulled out of the race after 35 kilometres as they could not continue due to injury.

Army athletes also dominated the men’s half marathon. Kalyan Baniya clocked 1:06:31 to  finish first, ahead of Gajendra Rai (1:06:38) and Tika Raj Katuwal (1:07:23). Army’s Bishwarupa Budha won the women’s half marathon with the timing of 1:17:20. In the absence of star athlete Kanchhi Maya Koju, no runner could give tough competition to the Budha. APF’s Brinda Deshar was second in 1:26:12 and TAC’s Chandra Raut came third. Top three athletes  got Rs 50,000, Rs 35,000 and Rs 25,000 respectively.

Olympians Rajendra Bhandari, Tika Ram Shrestha and Para Olympian Bikram Bahdur Rana  were felicitated during the closing ceremony. Chief of the Army Staff Gen Purna Chandra Thapa handed over Rs 25,000 each and felicitation letters to the trio. According to the organisers, more than 3,000 athletes took part in the race that featured nine events.

The Marathon started from Army Headquarters and went through Tripureswor, Baneswor, Koteshwor, Thimi, Pepsicola, Chabahil, Maharajgunj, Lainchaur, Durbarmarg and ended at Army Headquarters.