Ethiopian Assefa wins Mumbai full marathon

Mumbai, Jan 16 (ANI): Ethiopia's Girima Assefa won the 42-km full run at the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon 2011.

Assefa reached the finish in two hours, nine minutes and 54 seconds beating the previous record of 2:11:54s set by Kenya's Kenneth Mungara two years ago.

He was followed by compatriot Botor Segaye Wolde, who completed the run clocking 2:09:57s. Kenya's Patrick Muriuki was third with a timing of 2:10:00s.

Several Bollywood actors such as John Abraham, Shilpa Shetty, Shreyas Talpade, Rahul Bose, Milind Soman, Vivek Oberoi and Gul Panag participated in the eighth edition of the marathon.

The marathon was divided into five categories including full marathon, half marathon, wheel run, dream run and senior citizens run.

B C Tilak, winner of the half marathon said that he felt it was a good run and was all praise for the citizens of Mumbai for being very supportive to the participants.

"The Mumbai run is considered as a very good run in India and I feel that it is a good run and even the arrangements are also good," he added.

More than 17 non-governmental organisations and 132 corporate companies also participated in the run, with various international participants.

Keeping the security aspect in mind, around 700 policemen and policewomen have been deployed across the 42-km-long route.

Around 150 doctors with their 120 assistants, two helicopters and eight ambulances have been arranged for any untoward incidents. (ANI)