Kathmandu, August 3:

Five years after writing his name in the Guinness Book of World Records as the fastest high-altitude marathoner, Hari Bahadur Rokaya finally received the certificate of his feat.

Rokaya set the record of 3 hours, 50 minutes and 23 seconds on his way to his third Everest Marathon victory in 2000. His record, however, was included only in 2005. A resident of Jumla, Rokaya also won the previous two marathons in 1997 (4:15:42) and 1999 (3:56:10). The annual Everest Marathon starts from Gorak Sep (17,000 feet) and ends in Namche (11,300 feet).

The first Nepali player to achieve the feat, Rokaya made public the certificate here at a programme organised by Nepal Sports Journalists Forum (NSJF). Senior sports journalist Shyam Chitrakar, NSJF vice-president Dhruba Tuladhar and general secretary Hemanta Kafle felicitated Rokaya, who won the Special award for his feat at the NSJF-LG Player of the Year Awards last year.

Rokaya, 46, said: “It was not possible to show the certificate to everybody, so I decided to make it public through media.”