Gopi Thonakal becomes first Indian man to win Asian Marathon Championship gold

Dongguan, China: Gopi Thonakal became the first India man to win Asian Marathon Championship after he achieved the feat in the 16th edition of the prestigious event, here on Sunday.

Gopi clocked 2 hours 15 minutes and 48 seconds to clinch the gold.

Andrey Petrov of Uzbekistan bagged the silver with a timing of 2:15:51s while Byambalev Tseveenravdan of Mongolia won bronze by clocking 2:16:14s.

Gopi, thus, became the first Indian man to win the title after the formation of separate Asian Marathon championships.

Earlier Asha Agarwal won the women's title when it was part of the biennial Asian Track & Field Championships.