Bed Bahadur Sunuwar and Purnimaya Rai won the Tenzing-Hillary Everest Marathon in Namche Bazaar on Sunday.

The Nepal Army athlete Sunuwar clocked 4:10:00 to win the high altitude 42.195km race ahead of fellow teammate Bhim Bahadur Gurung, who time 4:03:14. Suman Kulung, another local athlete, completed the podium place finishing the men’s full marathon in third place with the timings of 4:11:52. “Winning the event in my first attempt is wonderful,” said Sunuwar.

Rai won the women’s full marathon in 5:00:24, ahead of Nirkala Kulung (5:38:01) and Pasang Dolma Sherpa (6:31:39). The marathon started from Everest Base Camp located at 5,364m near the Khumbu Glacier and ended at Namche Bazaar (3,446m).

Like the full marathon, Nepali athletes clean swept the 60k extreme ultra race. Tirtha Bahadur Tamang of Nepali Army timed 6:36:13 to win the ultra race ahead of his clubmate Purna Tamang, who clocked 6:45:05. DB Kulung ended up third in 6:55:28.

Robert Celinski of Poland won the foreigners’ category with the timings of 4:24:08. Fabrice Kah of France finished second in 5:15:04 and Joseph Wynes of US in third with the timings of 5:41:12. Tenzing Dolmas of the Netherlands claimed the 21km open half marathon in 3:30:13, while Dominique Hopkins (3:32:11) of Australia ended up second and Roshani Rai of India (4:02:08) third. In all, 131 locals and 171 foreign athletes took part in race organised annually to mark the first successful ascent of Mt Everest by Tenzing Norgay Sherpa and Edmund Hillary in 1953.

The top three winners of the Ultra race and open marathon winners received Rs 1,00,000, Rs 75,000 and Rs 50,000 each. Top three runners in the other three categories—women’s open, foreigners’ open and open half marathon—got Rs 50,000, Rs 35,000 and Rs 25,000 each.