One dies in Mumbai Marathon, six others suffer heart attacks

Shiv Kumar

Tribune News Service

Mumbai, January 19

Seven participants suffered heart attacks while one person died and another went for an emergency angioplasty while participating at the Mumbai Marathon today.

According to the organisers, Gajanan Maljalkar, 64, suffered a heart attack and died while participating in the event. He was declared brought dead by the hospital where he was rushed to. Another participant, Himanshu Thakkar, 40, underwent an emergency angioplasty after complaining of chest pain. The others who suffered heart attacks were rushed to hospital for treatment.

The Mumbai Marathon saw a record 55,000 participants, including politicians and celebrities, running in various categories.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray flagged off the Dream Run, a 5.9km race which is part of the main event. The event is not timed and every participant who completes the run gets a medal.

As in the past years, African participants dominated the international categories. Ethiopian Derara Hurisa won the international men’s category with a new course record of 2 hours, 8:09 minutes. He took home a cheque of $60,000, including a $15,000 bonus for breaking the course record. Amane Beriso, also from Ethiopia, won the women’s event with a timing of 2:24:51.

Among the Indians, Srinu Bugatha and Sudha Singh won the men and women’s categories, respectively. It was a hat-trick of Mumbai Marathon crowns for Sudha.