Long-distance runner Avikash Lal is ready to compete in the 2017 Island Chill Suva Marathon which will take place on July 22 in Suva.
Lal won a gold medal in the 10,000 metres at the 2017 Oceania Athletics Championship in Suva last month.
“I encourage the young generation to compete in the marathons instead of focusing on the mobile phones,” he said.
“They should come and compete in running.
“For me, I am looking forward to beat my own record from the last competition.
“Last year I clocked one hour and 15 minutes so my plan is to bring the time down to one hour, seven minutes.”
Suva Marathon Club official Marita Manley said they were hoping for a good event.
“We had a spike in the registration this week and we have 50 full marathon runners registered and 110 half marathon runners and there are business houses who would be taking part,” she said.
“We usually had 300 to 400 runners for the fun run and they do not need to register as they can come and compete.
“We have local runners who have been putting a lot of hard yards in the training with Avikash Lal, Kennol Narayan and we have a famale runner Anna Cowley who had been competing for number of years now.”
Originally published in Fiji Times, Pravin Narain, Wednesday, July 19, 2017: http://www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?id=409188
