There were 38,000 winners at the seventh Mumbai Marathon – all of those that competed in the full marathon, the half-marathon or the dream run. More formally, the winner of the Men’s Marathon was Kenya’s Dennis Ndizo in the fast time of 2:12:33 and the Women’s winner was Ethiopia’s Bizunesh Mohammed in 2:31:13. The course took the runners across the Bandra-Worli sealink and back.
A number of Bollywood performers participated in the event including John Abraham, who is the brand ambassador for the event, Akshay Kumar, Rahul Bose, Shahid Kapoor, Riteish Deshmukh, Sophie Choudhury, Konkona Sen Sharma and Gul Panag. Impressed by the number of senior citizens in the event, Akshay said that more than coming to give inspiration, he had come to take inspiration and blessings from them.
Sophie Choudhury was running for the cause Seeing is Believing. “Sometimes we really don’t value just how important vision is,” she said, “ I have seen my own grandma suffer due to age and it upsets me because she is so strong and active but her deteriorating vision has become an issue. ‘Seeing is Believing’ have restored sight to well over 2 million people and provide help in slums and under-privileged areas.”
