India’s Nitendra Singh Rawat finished 12th in the men’s marathon event at the Commonwealth Games 2022, here on Saturday.

The 35-year old marathon runner clocked 2:19:22, which was 8:27 behind gold medal winner Victor Kiplangat of Uganda (2:10:55).

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Rawat’s personal best is 2:16:05 at the Delhi Marathon earlier this year where the Indian long-distance runner won. Shivnath Singh owns the national record in the men’s marathon with a timing of 2:12:00, set in 1978 in Jalandhar. It’s India’s longest-standing national record in athletics.

Rawat, a Rio 2016 Olympian, steadily went up the order in the race at CWG 2022. He was 16th after the 5km split and climbed up to 12th by the time he hit the 30km mark. He couldn’t keep up the pace thereafter. In all, 18 athletes started the race.

Alphonce Simbu of Tanzania, a world championships medallist, and Michael Githae of Kenya won silver and bronze, respectively, at Birmingham 2022.

Simbu finished the race at 2:12:29, while Githae snatched the bronze medal from Australia’s Liam Adams by maintaining a seven-second difference. The Kenyan stopped at 2:13:16, while Adams huffed and puffed to fourth position at 2:13:23.

The 42.2 km race started in Smithfield and finished at Victoria Square. The event missed Australian Michael Shelley who won the men’s marathon at Gold Coast 2018. He retired in 2019.

(Inputs from IANS)