Parasappa, Priyanka top

Parasappa Halijor of Sports Hostel, Dharwad and U Priyanka of Mysore won the men’s and women’s races respectively in the Deccan Athletic Club’s K A Nettakallappa memorial road races, sponsored by Deccan Herald and Prajavani, here on Sunday.

Parasappa faced stiff competition from Kanakappa of Mundaragi through the entire distance of 12 km before the former pipped his long-time rival by a just under a minute, by stopping the clock at 37 minutes and 14 seconds. Kanakappa finished second in 38:06 while Lingaraj I Haliyal of Dharward ended third in 38:18.

In the women’s 6km race, Bangalore’s Priyanka, who now studies in Mysore, timed 23 minutes and 38 seconds to pip Udupi’s K Bindu to second place (23:46.00). Bindu, at one stage, had left the winner behind by about 10 metres but Priyanka picked up pace towards the closing stages to touch the tape first.

In the boys’ section, S Tejas of Chikkaballapur emerged the winner by covering the 2.5 km distance in 7:51.69 while Bijapur’s LMalleshwari Ramu Rathod topped in the corresponding girls’ category by timing 8:46.54.

Tejas was involved in an interesting duel with N Sandeep before crossing the line just four seconds ahead of his Udupi rival.

Results: Men (12 km): Parasappa M Halijor (SAI, Dharwad) 37:14, 1; Kanakappa S Donni (Mundaragi) 38:06, 2; Lingaraj I Haliyal (Dharwad) 38:18, 3.

Women (6km): U Priyanka (Mysore) 23:38, 1; K Bindu (Nitte Education Trust, Udupi) 2; 23:46, 2; HR Taramani (Mysore) 25:26, 3.

Boys (2.5 km): S Tejas (Chikkaballapur) 7:51.69, 1; N Sandeep (SDM, Ujjire) 7:55.80, 2; Dinesh (Nitte Education Trust) 8:07.18, 3.

Girls (2.5 km): Malleshwari Ramu Rathod (Bijapur) 8:46.4, 1; R Rakshitha (Kyathanahalli) 8:56.78, 2; Neelamma Lakshman Rathod (Bijapur) 9:32.78, 3.