Kochi: Maharashtra’s Harshad Mhatre won the Federal Bank Kochi Marathon 2024, organised by CleoSportz here on Sunday. 28 year old Harshad from the Indian Railways finished the run in a photo finish with a timing of 02:35:50 hrs. Dinesh Kisan Patil, also from Maharashtra finished second with the same timing. Telangana native Ramavath RameshChandra came third in 02:38:37 hrs. In the women’s category, Arati Patil from Maharashtra lifted the title by finishing in 03:37:03 hrs. Anju Murukan from Kerala (04:25:17) finished second.

The other winners and their finishing time are as follows;

21.097 K Half Marathon

Men’s Category

1. Nabeel Sahi (01:17:43)

2. Sajith K.M (01:19:56)

3. Rajesh Thankachan (01:22:47)

Women’s Category

1. Jolsana Anthony (01:38:25)

2. Neena Katwal (01:40:47)

3. Gayathri G (01:45:00)

10K Run

Men’s Category

1. Sreerag A.S (00:33:35)

2. Prabhakar K (00:39:57)

3. Ravi A (00:40:13)

Women’s Category

1. Beena George (00:40:41)

2. Akshaya K (00:46:25)

3. Tesna Joseph (00:46:55)

Apart from these, a 3 km Green Run and 1.3 km Special Run for the differently-abled in association with the Raksha Society was also held.

V. Abdurahiman, Minister for Sports, Govt. of Kerala; Justice Devan Ramachandran, Kerala High Court Judge were the chief guests at the prize distribution ceremony. N. Ravi, DIG, Indian Coast Guard; Indian former netball and basketball player and actress Prachi Tehlan; cine actor Hakim Shah, Federal Bank Executive Director Shalini Warrier, former Executive Director Ashuthosh Khajuria, Aster Medcity Kochi Operations Head Dhanya Shyamalan and Lulu Group India Commercial Manager Sadhik Kasim distributed the prizes to the winners.  

The marathon was flagged off at 4 AM at the Maharajas College Ground here by V.K. Raju, Assistant Commissioner of Police and M.V.S. Murthy, Chief Marketing Officer, Federal Bank. Former sports persons Sathish Pillai, T.C. Yohannan, Indian Volleyball player Rajanpreet Singh, Federal Bank MD and CEO Shyam Srinivasan, Assistant Commissioner of Police Jayakumar, official Medical Director of the marathon Dr. Johnson K. Varghese, Gardenia Cosmotrade LLP (Tiger Balm) Partner Puneet Motiani and Haw Par India Pvt. Ltd. (Tiger Balm) Country Head Dipanjan Ghosh were present on the occasion.

Around 8000 participants from around 10 countries and 20 states in India ran in the four categories of the marathon held in association with Kerala Tourism department, Kerala Sports department, Kerala Police and in partnership with Aster Medcity Kochi, Tiger Balm and NJUZE.