Indian Men clinch gold, Women win silver in IAU 24H Asia and Oceania Championships

Bangalore, July 4: Indian Ultra Runners stole the show in the Ageas Federal Life Insurance IAU 24H Asia and Oceania Championships, winning the Men's Individual and Team titles at the Kanteerava Stadium in Bengaluru over the weekend.

Led by the formidable Amar Singh Devanda, the Indian's men's team clocked a combined total of 739.959 km over the scheduled 24 hours, starting from 8 am on Saturday, to comfortably clinch the gold medal.

Amar Singh managed a personal best of 258.418 km, which was over 18 kilometres more than his previous most, to outshine the field. He was followed home by Saurav Kumar Ranjan (242.564) and Geeno Antony (238.977), to make it a clean sweep for India in the Individual Championships.

Australia (628.405) and Chinese Taipei (563.591) clinched the second and third positions.

"We are delighted that India's runners came up with such a strong performance. Our congratulations to each of the winners who showed true grit and courage to stay on the track for 24 long hours," Karthik Raman, CMO of Ageas Federal Life Insurance Ltd, said.

On a pleasant day, with light drizzles making stray appearances, the Indian women's team put up a strong performance to secure the second position. Together, they ran an impressive 570.70 km, threatening the eventual winners all through the day.

Australia, however, clinched the first position with 607.63 kms. Chinese Taipei took the third position with 529.082. Taipei's Kuan Ju Lin (216.877 km) took the first position in the women's individual while Australia's Cassie Cohen (214.990) and Allicia Heron (211.442) grabbed the other two places on the podium.

Race Director, Nagaraj Adiga of NEB Sports, the organisers, expressed his delight at the success of the Championships. "This is the first time that India hosted an IAU Championship of this scale. I thank everybody for making it a huge success," he said.