Life has been full of surprises for Thonakal Gopi. The 29-year-old, who became the first Indian to win the Asian Marathon men’s title in Dongguan, China, on Sunday, came to the event by accident last year.
At the 2016 Mumbai Marathon , Gopi was supposed to be a pace-setter for Nitendra Rawat. Primarily a 10,000m runner, the Kerala athlete was supposed to drop off at 30km. But when he reached that stage, he realised that he could do a lot more and went on to finish the 42.1km event.
And he stunned everyone by making the cut for the Rio Olympics there; it was his maiden marathon.
READ: Gopi wins Asian marathon
“The Asian gold was certainly a surprise but I had expected a medal because when I saw the season best times here, I was among the top three,” Gopi told Sportstar from China on Sunday evening. “So, I knew I had a chance of getting a medal.”
So when did he realise that he could grab the gold? Where was the turning point?
“We were an eight-runner bunch for a major part but with about two kilometres from the finish, we were about two or three and I pushed to win (in 2:15.48s).
“The second-placed runner (Uzbekistan’s Petro Andrey, 2:15.51) was very close but the third-placed man (Mongolia’s T. Byambajav, 2:16.14) was far away.”
Gopi was the lone Indian at the championship and India did not have an entry in the women’s event.
Son of a farmer in Sulthan Bathery in Wayanad, Gopi had won the 10,000m silver at the Asian Athletics Championship i n Bhubaneswar in July, finishing four seconds behind Tamil Nadu’s G. Lakshmanan, the double gold medallist.
His personal best of 2:15.25s came at the Rio Olympics where he finished 25th last year and he was 28th in the London Worlds this year in 2:17.13. His goal is to break Shivnath Singh’s national record (2:12.00s) set in 1978 some day.
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