Bugatha, Sudha headline Indian challenge at Tata Mumbai

Army's Srini Bugatha will lead the Indian challenge in the Tata Mumbai Marathon, while Sudha Singh will lead the challenge for women at the event, which will be held on January 19.

Leading the Indian elite men full marathon line-up is Bugatha, who won the Airtel Delhi Half Marathon and the Tata Steel Kolkata 25K 2019 editions, finishing the races in 1:04:33 and 1:18:31, respectively in the last two months.

Challenging him will be Rashpal Singh, silver medalist in Kathmandu South Asian Games 2019, along with Rahul Pal, winner of the Pune International Marathon 2019.

The women's full marathon line-up has Olympian and Arjuna Awardee, Sudha Singh, eyeing to add to her three TMM titles and firmly set on a hat-trick this year.

Sudha won her first title in 2016 and after a year's gap, she was champion in 2018 and 2019 as well.

The three-time winner will be challenged by Jyoti Gawte, who won the marathon in 2017.

In the men's half marathon category, Avinash Sable, 3,000 steeplechase national record holder, will lead the field along with Shankar Man Thapa, who was the runner-up in 2019.

Sable shattered his own national record at World Championship at Doha in October and qualified for Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

In women's half marathon, veteran athlete Swati Gadhave will face a stiff competition from 2019 runner-up and winner of 2018 edition, Monica Athare.

The organisers announced that as many as 55,322 runners will stand in unison at the start line of the event.

A total of 9,660 runners will run the full marathon, 15,260 runners will run the half marathon, 19,707 runners in the Dream Run, 8,032 runners in 10K, 1,022 runners in Senior Citizen Run and 1,596 runners in Champion with Disability.

Meanwhile, organisers have also introduced a time- performance bonus for Indian elites running the marathon.