<p class="title">Reigning Asian champion Gopi Thonakal ran his personal best to retain his title at the New Delhi Marathon here on Sunday.</p>.<p class="title">Gopi clocked 2 hours, 15 minutes and 16 seconds to clinch the gold under ideal running conditions but missed the tough Commonwealth Games qualification mark set by the Athletics Federation of India.</p>.<p class="title">"This was an opportunity where I needed to try hard and perform my best. I practised and performed to my highest capabilities but missed the qualifying for the CWG by three minutes," Gopi said.</p>.<p class="title">Nitendra Singh Rawat was second in 2:24:55 while Bahadur Singh Dhoni took the bronze in 2:24:56.</p>.<p class="title">Gopi had run his previous best of 2:15:25 at the Rio Olympic Games in 2016. The 29-year-old Gopi's effort was, however, well outside the 2:12:50 qualification guideline set by the Athletics Federation of India for the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.</p>.<p class="title">In the women's event, Monika Athare retained her title, clocking 2:43:46, finishing ahead of last edition's silver medallist Jyoti Gawate (2:50:12) and Monica Raut (2:55:02).</p>
<p class="title">Reigning Asian champion Gopi Thonakal ran his personal best to retain his title at the New Delhi Marathon here on Sunday.</p>.<p class="title">Gopi clocked 2 hours, 15 minutes and 16 seconds to clinch the gold under ideal running conditions but missed the tough Commonwealth Games qualification mark set by the Athletics Federation of India.</p>.<p class="title">"This was an opportunity where I needed to try hard and perform my best. I practised and performed to my highest capabilities but missed the qualifying for the CWG by three minutes," Gopi said.</p>.<p class="title">Nitendra Singh Rawat was second in 2:24:55 while Bahadur Singh Dhoni took the bronze in 2:24:56.</p>.<p class="title">Gopi had run his previous best of 2:15:25 at the Rio Olympic Games in 2016. The 29-year-old Gopi's effort was, however, well outside the 2:12:50 qualification guideline set by the Athletics Federation of India for the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.</p>.<p class="title">In the women's event, Monika Athare retained her title, clocking 2:43:46, finishing ahead of last edition's silver medallist Jyoti Gawate (2:50:12) and Monica Raut (2:55:02).</p>