Kathmandu, March 5

Gopi Chandra Parki of Nepal APF Club won the first CoAS Open Marathon and Run For Fun here today.

Parki clocked two hours, 23 minutes and 01 second to complete the 42.195km race in first position, just one second ahead of Tribhuvan Army Club’s Rajan Khatri. TAC athlete Hom Lal Shrestha finished third with the timing of 2:23:39. Khagendra Bhat, Bhumi Raj Rai and Purna Tamang finished fourth, fifth and sixth respectively.

Parki received Rs 100,000 along with Honda motorcycle and Samsung mobile phone. Khatri bagged Rs 50,000 and Shrestha pursed Rs 25,000, while the runners finishing from fourth to sixth spots got Rs 10,000, Rs 7,000 and Rs 5,000 respectively.

Parki was happy with his performance in his first participation in marathon. “My coach Sushil Narshing Rana asked me to run in marathon, so I want to dedicate this title to him,” said Parki. Parki and Khatri entered the finishing point together but the former pushed hard in dying stages to win the race by a second.

In other events, TAC dominated half marathon. Hari Kumar Rimal clinched the race in male section, while Reshu Basnet finished first in women’s section. Rimal, the lone Nepali athlete who won medal in the 12th South Asian Games, clocked one hour, seven minutes and five seconds, while Lal Bahadur Thapa came second in 1:07:58 and Laxman Malla of APF was third in 1:09:00. Basnet took 1:22:04 to finish the distance, while Sarita Basi and Puspa Bhandari of APF finished second and third respectively. Top three athletes in half marathon received Rs 25,000, 15,000 and 10,000 respectively.

In 10km race for military attaché, foreigners and army officers, Idan Elis, Nadav Shemesh and Simon Castro Woldridge claimed top three spots respectively in men’s category, while Franziska Seedoefer won the race in female section. Likewise, Madhu Thapa, Narayan Dutta Adhikari and Rek Bahadur Karki finished in top three among army officers in men’s section, while Nira Khadka, Til Kumari Shrestha and Sanchita KC took the honours in women’s category.

In 5km students section, Suresh Thapa Magar, Sagar Shrestha and Manoj Karki were top three finishers respectively in boys’ race, while Sangita Khadka, Sunita Shrestha and Sujata Darlami Magar came first, second and third respectively in girls category. The top three finishers received Rs 7,000, Rs 5,000 and Rs 3,000 respectively.

Meanwhile, Nepal Army honoured athletes Min Bahadur Bista, Gajaraj Joshi, Bhupendra Silwal, Ganga Bahadur Thapa, Bhakta Bahadur Sapkota, Jeet Bahadur KC, Baikuntha Manandhar and Mukunda Bahadur Shrestha, who participated in the Asian Games from 1951 to 1980, with Lifetime Achievement Awards along with Rs 21,000 and letters of appreciation.