By IANS
Pune : Kenyans dominated the 22nd Vodafone Pune International Marathon here with Philip Makau Muia winning the gruelling 42.195 km run in a time of two hours 17 minutes and 35 seconds.
Muia took control of the race early and never allowed others any chance, and looked remarkably fresh even as he crossed the finish line. His time was more than two minutes slower than his personal best of two hours and 15 seconds. Muia completely dominated the race from the very beginning, keeping a comfortable lead.
Earlier this year in September, Muia finished second in Sydney marathon.
As many as 72 runners from 14 countries started out in the main marathon.
The city got to an early start Sunday morning as former Indian cricket captain Sunil Gavaskar and Bollywood actor Salman Khan flagged off the Pune Marathon. Also present to cheer the runners were Suresh Kalmadi, Chairman, Pune International Marathon, CEO of Vodafone B.P Singh and Pune Mayor Rajlaxmi Bhosle.
Scheduled a day after the International AIDS day, the Marathon was billed as “Race against AIDS”.
Adding a touch of glamour to the run were two of the ‘Chak De India’ girls, Sagarika Ghate and Vidya Malavade.
Salman Khan came dressed in shorts all prepared to run, but his body guards stopped him for security reasons.
Close to 30,000 runners took to road here as part of the race which started at 7:45 am. The city weather was just perfect at 10 degree celsius giving the marathon runners an additional momentum.
Thousands of Puneites, many standing with coloured balloons and flags, came out to the streets to encourage the runners as the marathon commenced from Khandoji Baba Chowk and ended at the Nehru Stadium near Swargate.
For the Indian athletes, the marathon meant a qualifying race for the Beijing marathon.
The marathon saw much participation from IT companies in and around Pune. Infosys alone had 1000 runners, closely followed by Cognizant Technology with 800 employees.
The proceeds from the sale of entry forms from the AIDS charity run was donated to Project Concern International, an NGO working towards HIV/AIDS prevention.