Indian marathoner Gopi T qualifies for Doha Worlds

India's Gopi T. Pic/Shadab Khan

India's Asian marathon champion Gopi Thonakal has qualified for the World Athletics Championships to be held in Doha in September-October after finishing 11th in the Seoul International Marathon.

Gopi, 30, clocked his personal best time of 2 hours 13 minutes 39 seconds in the marathon race on Sunday, bettering the World Championships qualification mark of 2:16:00. His earlier best was 2:15:16 last year.

Gopi's time is the second best ever by an Indian after the four-decade old national record of 2:12:00, which is held by Shivnath Singh. Seoul International Marathon is a world class IAAF Gold label event. Gopi won the Asian marathon title in Dongguan, China in 2017.

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