Sanjivani, Karan top among Indians

Sanjivani Jadhav defended her title as the fastest Indian in the event as she put together a stellar run to finish 10th overall in the women's section of the TCS World 10K Bengaluru on Sunday.

The 22-year-old built on her previous performances this season, where she had three podiums from four events, and stopped the clock at 35:10 to clinch the top prize for Indian athletes.

Parul Chaudhary came in second at 35:36 ahead of Chinta Yadav (36:34).

"Last year I did the record. This year the start was slow and I have a small hamstring niggle also. I was a bit nervous that I wouldn't get a good time but I wanted to finish first, so I'm feeling good," Sanjivani said.

The Indian course record holder kept pace with the foreigners till the 6km mark but fell back and from then on, ran the race to her plan.

The Nashik native was right behind world marathon champion Rose Chelimo coming into the stadium but just missed out on finishing ahead of the Bahraini, who crossed the line two seconds ahead of the Indian.

It was also a very fruitful outing for Chinta, who took a podium spot in her first 10K.

"(It was a) good exposure, it's the first time I am running a 10K and came third. So I'm feeling good," said the steeplechaser.

Among the Indian men, Karan Singh made the top place his own with a 29:55 run ahead of G Lakshmanan (30:02) and Avinash Sable (30:36).

Lakshmanan had kept the lead for the major part alongside Karan before the latter decided to up the ante in the final two kilometres.

"I was following Lakshmanan because I knew he would clock a good time," said Karan. "I'm preparing for marathons but I needed to improve my speed so I did some preparation and ran the 10K."

Lakshmanan said the late start of the race was his biggest hindrance.

"I tried for the record. I started fast but because of the heat, I couldn't keep up. If the race had started earlier, it could have been a record," he stressed.