Asia marathon winner Gopi Thonakal qualifies for World Championship

Asia marathon winner Gopi Thonakal qualifies for World Championship

SportsCafe Desk

By SportsCafe Desk, SportsCafe Editor

31
no photo

Gopi Thonakal, the 2017 Asian Marathon Championship winner, has now qualified for the World Championship in Doha. This is owing to his performance in the Seoul International Marathon, where he finished in the 11th place, clocking 2:13:39, which also happens to be his personal best.

The 30-year-old, who hails from Kerala, had bettered his own timing of 2 hours, 15 minutes, and 16 seconds in the process to qualify for the World Championship, where the qualifying mark was set at 2:16:00, by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF). 

Not only this, but Thonakal’s timing has now been the second best by an Indian, after Shivnath Singh’s national record 2:12:00, which was set in 1978 at Jalandhar. The former army man has a number of victories to his name and had even taken part in the 2016 Summer Olympics marathon, where he had finished 25th.

Seoul marathon, which started since 1931, has been the oldest marathon event continuously held in Asia and also is a gold class IAAF event. The IAAF World Championships in athletics is the premier marathon event which takes place once in two years, this year’s edition is set take place in Doha during September-October this year.

Get updates! Follow us on

Open all