VASCO: Zelalem Alemu and Ankita Palekar emerged winners in the 42km run in the men’s and women’s category respectively at the Goa River Marathon held at Vasco, on Sunday.

Zelalem was the first to finish the long run in 2 hours 25 minutes while Ashenafi Baysa came in second after a minute. Degefa Lafebo finshed in third with a time of 2 hours and 34 minutes. Jitesh Vishwakarma, Rajaram Renganathan and Jintendra Kumar Yadav finished in 4th 5th and 6th place.

In the women's open, Ankita Palekar finished first after 3 and a half hours of running. Vicotria Old came in second place with a time run of 3 hours and 45 minutes. Deepa Mogha had to settle for third place after running for nearly 4 hours. Carmem Andrade, Fatima Desa anf Pritiva Lobo finished in 4th 5th and 6th place respectively.         

In the 10 km run, Ajay finished the run in 34:08 minutes. Karan Mali who came in 2nd place almost came close to Ajay by just a difference of 31 seconds behind. Ganesh Argekar came in 3rd place who clocked a time of 35:57 minutes. Devraj K, Shubham Madhavi and Surjay Bind came in 4th, 5th and 6th place respectively.

In the 10 km women's open, Catherine Haigh finished first as she crossed the finish line after 46:28 minutes. Vanja Tufvesson gave her a tough run but had to settle for second after falling 26 seconds short. 

Danita Diniz crossed the line after 48:10 minutes to settle for third place. Anite Nishad, Sally Crook and Kavina Gomes finished in 4th 5th and 6th place respectively.

As the marathon progressed further to the 21 km category, there was a stiff battle between Jenbel Galen and Abebe Bekele who were separated by just a second in first and second respectively after running for about 1 hour 9 minutes. Ismail Sssenyange came in third place after 19 seconds. Kindu Triuen, Solomon Kassaye and Subhankar Ghosh had to settle for 4th, 5th and 6th place respectively.

In the women's open, Puja Mondal finished her run at 1 hour 31 minutes to grab the first place while Divya T came in second place after 7 minutes. Merina Mathew finished third after almost running for 2 hours. Samyukta Jadha, Brianne Marwaha and Pratima Heble settled for 4th, 5th and 6th place respectively.