Pokhara, June 3

Tribhuvan Army Club athlete and Olympian Hari Kumar Rimal won the title of the Annapurna Marathon here today.

Rimal completed the 42.195km distance in four hours, 16 minutes and 48 seconds to finish first in the race which was clean swept by the Armymen. PurnaTamang came second in four hours, 17 minutes and 42 seconds, while fellow TAC athlete HomlalShrestha finished third in four hours, 20 minutes and 38 seconds.

Rimal received Rs 100,000, while Tamang and Shrestha earned Rs 70,000 and Rs 50,000 respectively. Rup BahadurBudha, Bhumi Raj Rai, Anil Kumar Waiba, Durga Raj BudhaMagar, RuplalBudhaMagar, SherBahadurTharu and DamodarBudhaMagar finished fourth to 10th respectively.

A total of 61 athletes took part in the event. The race started from Annapurna Base Camp at an altitude of 4,130 metres and went through Machhapuchhre Base Camp, Bagar, Deurali, Sinuwa, Ghurjung, Tadapani, Bhaisikharka before ending at Ghandruk of Annapurna Rural Municipality.

The event was organised to mark to 69th Annapurna Day under the Annapurna Sanctuary Tourism Festival. Frenchmen Maurice Herzog and Louis Lachenal were the first mountaineers to summit Mt Annapurna (8,091m) and that was the first accent of above 8,000m peak in the world. The marathon was the third and final event of the Annapurna Day celebration. Former Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal handed over the prizes to the winners.