Delhi Half Marathon | Winning race is good, but I wanted to get record, admits Srinu Bugatha
Press Release
Although he won the Delhi Half Marathon, Srinu Bugatha admitted that he wanted the course record for Indian men set by Nitendra Rawat. Bugatha further revealed that it was his own slowing down that saw him finish in one hour, four minutes and 33 seconds, almost a minute slower than the record.
In the same week in which he ran 5000m and 10,000m races, Bugatha slowed down after the 15 km mark to run at a pace he thought would be good enough to rename the record books for himself. Bugatha won the 21 kilometre race, but the record wasn’t to be his. Suresh Patel and Harshad Mhatre claimed second and third place with timings of 1:04:57 and 1:05:12 respectively.
“I wanted to get the record because that is what I came here for. Winning the race is good but perhaps breaking the record would have given me more motivation. I was a little tired as I had run 5,000 and 10,000m in Ranchi last week. I ran 21 kilometres alone. There was no one to set the pace or someone I could chase. The foreigners are too fast so if there were some good Indian runners, I would have pushed more,” Bugatha was quoted saying by Scroll.Â
“The win in half marathon makes me believe that I run full ones as well. I will train and coach will also be happy that I am winning so he will also help,” he said.
In his small competitive career of five years, the army-man has won over 100 national and international races and has been in the national camp for some time now. However, Bugatha is determined to push on from what is his biggest title to aim for Olympic glory. And he draws inspiration from fellow army runners Gopi T and Rawat. The 27-year-old further admitted that he owes his comeback trail to the officers at his unit put their foot down in 2017.
“Wherever I got the chance I ran and got the money. Then my unit got serious and they said you have talent so run for India and try something else. Gopi got to Olympics and that made him a superstar. The motivation he got he used in future races and look at him now. I will also try for Olympics now. Earlier I used to run for money, now I will run to get to the Olympics,” Bugatha said.Â
“I ran a lot in training but mind was somewhere else. I was using my phone and social media. I won a race and there are thousands liking my photo. I loved it. But that ruined my career. I now have a keypad phone."
