Kolkata, December 20 : Kolkata’s pot-holed roads with precariously aligned tram tracks and poor management came in for criticism from seasoned Indian long-distance runners Sudha Singh, Lalita Babar and OP Jaisha who finished top three in the ‘Tata Steel Kolkata 25K’ here today.
“The big problem was there was no pilot vehicles and at some places, traffic even dogs came in our way. There was similar problem last year also,” last year’s runner-up Sudha said after her win as Lalita and Jaisha echoed the same.
Severely criticising the roads, the trio further said the courses in Delhi and Mumbai are much better help them better their timings.
“The roads are very bad and here there are ‘railway tracks’ — tram line — on the roads so we had to be very careful… It was all the more difficult to negotiate our way without a pilot vehicle and at one stretch dogs came in our way and we also had to watch out for traffic,” Lalita, who set a national record in Delhi Half Marathon last month, said.
Troubled by a bad left knee, Lalita was all the more cautious.
“I did not want to aggravate it ahead of the Mumbai Marathon and took it easy. Thankfully it’s not serious and will be okay before January 17,” Lalita added.
National record holder Jaisha hoped things would improve in the days to come.
“In Mumbai and Delhi, the roads are very good and we never faced such problems… Hope things would improve in future,” Jaisha said.
Sudha shattered the meet record by more than six seconds to clinch the elite women’s title ahead of Lalita and Jaisha.
The 33-year-old Elam Singh won the men’s section with a timing of 1:20:14 while Srinu Bugatha (1:20:16) and O Sanaton Singh (1:20:23) were second and third respectively.
Courtesy : PTI