Durga Bahadur Budha of Jumla upstaged departmental teams’ runners to claim the third Nepalgunj Marathon here on Tuesday. 

Budha completed the 42.195 kilometres clocking two hours 26:58 minutes in the men’s event where departmental runners had claimed second to eighth spots. Two days ago, Budha had participated in the Delhi International Half Marathon event. Tuesday’s race began from Nepalgunj Stadium and travelled en route Kohalpur before returning to the starting point. 

Khadak Bahadur Khadka of Tribhuvan Army Club (TAC) ended up second clocking 2:27:20 hours and Ganesh Singh Thakuri of Nepal Armed Police Force (APF) Club was third in 2:28:35 hours. The top three finishers got Rs 55,000, Rs 25,000 and Rs 15,000 respectively. Kiran Bogati (APF), Khim Bahadur Khatri (APF), Mohandev Joshi (TAC), Navaraj Saud (TAC) and Rajkumar Bista (TAC) were other runners to round up inside the top eight.

Reshu Basnet of TAC won the women’s half marathon clocking 1:24:45 to complete the 21km course. She took home Rs 30,000. Basnet finished ahead of clubmate Chandra Raut (1:28:06) and Krishneshwori Sintakala (1:30:07) of APF. The second and third place finishers got Rs 15,000 and Rs 10,000 respectively.

A total of 556 runners had participated in the marathon that hosted five different running events. Naresh Budha of Jumla won the boys’ 5km school race to get the better of districtmate Bibek Kathayat and Arbind Chhetri of Banke. Jumla also had two podium finishes in the girls’ 5km after Ram Maya Budha and Amrita Bhandari finished first and second respectively. 

Chandra Kumari Gharti of Salyan took the third spot. In a one-kilometre tricycle race for handicapped, Kamal Budha finished first to beat Nanku Tharu and Deepak Rai. The event was organised by Creative Hands Group in collaboration with different organisations.