Raut, Patel win half marathon in Mumbai

MUMBAI: Kavita Raut was in peak form in 2010 when she won bronze in the 10,000m at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi. Weeks later, she added another silver and bronze at the Asian Games in Guangzhou in the 10,000m and 5,000m respectively.
She could not match those performances at the international level thereafter, but still remains a force to reckon with in distance running at the domestic level.Raut, 29, won the half marathon at the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon on Sunday clocking 1:19:50 ahead of Eve Bugler who completed the race in 1:22:18 and Supriya Patil who clocked 1:26:48.
This was Raut's fourth successive win starting from the Hyderabad 10K in November last year, and also an improvement on her 2014 performance in Mumbai when she finished behind winner Sudha Singh in the half marathon.
"I won the Kolkata 25K and VasaiVirar half marathon after winning the Hyderabad 10K," said Raut on Sunday .She was happy with the manner in which she has recovered from a stress fracture she suffered about five months ago, but admitted she is not happy with the level of competition she has faced of late.
"The trend is for middle distance runners to gradually shift their focus to the marathon because of the money involved. That's why the level of competition in the half marathon and 10K has suffered," she said.
Indrajeet Patel, meanwhile, won the men's half marathon clocking 1:08:09 with Atwa Bhagat (1:08:11) and Govind Singh (1:08:14) taking the second and thir places respectively.