Hong Kong, January 21

Man Singh became only the second Indian man to clinch the gold medal at the Asian Marathon Championships as he won the race with a personal best time here today.

The 34-year-old clocked two hours, 14 minutes and 19 seconds to win the competition. His earlier best was 2:16:58, which he had clocked while finishing 11th in the Mumbai Marathon last year.

Singh, who had finished eighth in the Hangzhou Asian Games in 2:16:59, finished well outside the Paris Olympics qualifying mark of 2:08:10.

China’s Huang Yongzheng took silver with a time of 2:15:24, while Kyrgyzstan’s Tiapkin Ilya came third in 2:18:18. Another Indian in the fray, AP Belliappa, finished sixth with a time of 2:20:20.

In the women’s marathon, Ashvini Madan Jadhav finished eighth with a time of 2:56:42, while Jyoti Gawate ended 11th in 3:06:20.

Gopi Thonakal was the first Indian man to win the Asian Marathon Championships title in 2017. He had clocked 2:15:48 to win the gold in Dongguan, China.