Ram Singh, Kavita to lead Indian athletes in Delhi Half Marathon

New Delhi, Nov 3 (UNI) Top finishers among the Indians last year, Ram Singh Yadav and Kavita Raut, will lead the local athletes in the Airtel Delhi Half Marathon on November 9, the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) said.

Services athlete Yadav, the Indian winner for the last two years, clocked 1 hr 6.09 min while emerging the fastest Indian athlete in 2007, a timing that fetched him the 16th position overall. He was followed home one second later by Deep Chand, who clocked 66.10 for overall 17th position.

Deep Chand too is among the AFI list, while the other fancied names are Surender Singh, Shivadan Singh, K C Ramu, and Raj Kumar.

Among the women athletes, last year's winner Kavita Raut leads the list. Kavita, a 5000 and 10,000m track runner from Nashik, surprised the rest of the field last year by clocking 78.34 to finish 15th overall.

The Indian athletes, while having a shot at the overall prize fund, are also in line for handsome monetary gratification from the separate prize fund for Indian athletes.

The top prize for Indian finishers, men and women is 4,000 dollar and goes down till the 10th place finisher.

Following is AFI's list of leading Indian Athletes: Male: Surender Singh, Shivadan Singh, K C Ramu, Ram Singh Yadav, Raj Kumar, Deep Chand, L Bining (all from Services), B S Lone (Railways).

Female: Preeja Sreedharan (Railways), Pampa Chanda (Haryana), Reena Das (Del), Kavitha Raut (Mah), Leelamma Alphonso (Railways), Bhagwati (Del), Indresh Dhiraj (UP).

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