Bengaluru, May 21 (PTI) Sabastian Sawe of Kenya and Ethiopia’s Tsehay Gemechu ran superbly-paced races to win the elite men’s and women’s titles in two close finishes at the 15th TCS World 10K Bengaluru here on Sunday.

Among the Indian elite, Murli Gavit, making only his second appearance at the race, clinched the men’s title with a superb finish, while debutant Tamshi Singh won the women’s category.

Fresh from clocking the world’s fifth fastest 10K time in Germany last month, Sawe (27:58.24) won milliseconds ahead of Burundi’s Rodrigue Kwizera (27:58.35) in a gripping finish.

Three Kenyans finished inside the top four in the men’s race that saw last year’s winner and course record holder Nicholas Kipkoekir (28:05.09) come fourth behind Hillary Chepkwoni (27:59.70).

“The last two kilometres was really tough. I told myself I have to push really hard, even the last 500m was very challenging,” Sawe said.

It was an Ethiopian 1-2-3 in the women’s race with Fotyen Tesafe finishing four seconds behind Gemechu (31:38) and the experienced Dera Dida only seven seconds shy of the winner.

The winners took home an equal prize cheque of USD 26,000 each.

In her previous visit to Bengaluru in 2019 Gemechu had finished sixth.

“I was determined to get this victory. In 2019, I had made one mistake, this time I had the experience, so this was an easier race. I think my track experience came in handy today,” she said.

Murli and Tamshi show promise ======================== In the race for the Indian elite athletes, India’s most promising distance runner Murli ensured a brilliant finish clocking 29:58.03 with Harmanjot Singh giving a close fight for the top spot.

He finished with a time of 29:59.10 and Uttam Chand finished third (29:59.24).

The Indian men’s race followed a similar template as the international one with the athletes running together as a pack from the get-go.

Initially, it was Uttam Chand who led the charge, with Gaurav hot on his heels. While Uttam was being chased by Gaurav for most of the race, it was Harmanjot Singh and Murli Gavit who powered through the pack in the latter stages of the contest.

The rankings changed significantly in the final couple of kilometres as the likes of Harmanjot and Murli went through the gears and took the contest down to the wire.

It was Murli who had just the right amount of fuel in the tank to power through the home stretch as he stormed into the lead and finished ahead of Harmanjot and Uttam.

Among the Indian women, it wasn’t as much of a tight contest, as the 19-year-old Tamshi Singh produced a personal best performance on her debut here.

She timed 34:12 while Poonam Sonune was second with a time of 34:29, and Seema finished third with the clock reading 34:30.

Both Murli and Tamshi walked away with a cash purse of Rs 2,75,000 each.

Source: PTI News