Gopi Chandra Parki and Raj Pura Pachhai won the 10th edition of the Kantipur Half Marathon on Saturday.

APF Club’s Parki clocked 1 hour 7 minute and 41 seconds to win his second title of the men’s 21.1 kilometre annual race. Parki, also the gold medallist in the 5k race at the 13th South Asian Games, was a winner of the 2016 edition.

Pachhai of Nepal Police Club timed 1:19:10 to clinch the women’s title for the first time.

Parki and Pachhai won Rs100,000 each.

Army’s Deepak Adhikari and Mukesh Pal finished second and third respectively in the men’s section. Adhikari completed the distance in 1:07:50 and Pal’s final time was 1:08:47.

Army’s Gajendra Rai finished fourth, followed by Army’s Narendra Singh Rawal in the fifth position and Khagendra Bhat in the sixth position.

In the women’s 21.1 km category, APF’s Pushpa Bhandari took 1:22:05 to finish second while Police’s Rekha Bista recorded a time of 1:30:42 to come third.

Army’s Nirmala KC was fourth, APF’s Bindra Ghale Shrestha fifth and Army Gita BK finished sixth.

The runners-up of both men’s and women’s category received Rs50,000 each. The third-placed, fourth-placed, fifth-placed and sixth-placed runners of both categories were rewarded with Rs30,000, Rs20,000, Rs10,000 and Rs5,000 each respectively.

The event, stalled for two years due to the Covid-19 pandemic, was held under the theme ‘Run for a Green Nepal,’ in view of the impacts climate change is exerting on the country.

The half marathon had started from Central Business Park in Thapathali, the central office of Kantipur Publications Limited, and traversed through Maitighar Mandala, New Baneshwar, Tinkune, Koteshwar, Lokanthali, Thimi, Sallaghari and Katunje and returned via the same route to the starting point.

Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba had inaugurated the race.

Bikash Pokharel won the men’s corporate race. Pokharel recorded 17:48.27 to complete the 5km distance. Sher Bahadur Tharu and Ritesh Oli finished second and third respectively.

Sunny Tamang finished in 26:34.24 to win the women’s corporate race. Sunita Maharjan and Laeden Pradhan were second and third respectively.

The winners of both men’s and women’s corporate events got a Pokhara tour package, the runners-up a Nagarkot package and the third-placed finishers won a mountain flight ticket.

Ramesh Khatri won the men’s 3 km wheelchair marathon. He timed 12:32.03. He was followed by Prem Bahadur BK and Dan Bahadur Thing in the second and third position.

Yami Jhakri won the women’s 3k wheelchair race with a time of 17:51.1. Rajani Rai finished second.

The top three winners in the wheelchair events were rewarded Rs30,000, Rs20,000 and Rs10,000 respectively.

Nearly 1,500 runners had participated in the event. The runners were given a plant each at the end of the race to convey the message of green city and green country.