Army runner Khadak Bahadur Khadka and Olympian runner Santoshi Shrestha have won the title of 13th Kantipur Half Marathon. Both are first-time champions. Khadak Bahadur completed the race in 1 hour 06 minutes 47 seconds.

Santoshi from Dhading clocked 1 hour 23 minutes 28 seconds. Khadak won the title in his second participation. Santoshi, who won the half marathon in her third attempt, won the title four times in the 5 km category.

Khadak was beaten hard by his close rival Julius Muriuki of Kenya (1 hour 06 minutes 56 seconds). Khadak bet on the title by overtaking Julius from Maitighar turn. APF runner Gopichandar Parki came in third place.

He covered the distance in 1 hour 08 minutes 48 seconds. Gopichandar was also third last year. After that, Army runners Rajan Rokay, Sanjay Shrestha and Ramji Basnet got success till the sixth place. Rajan completed the race in 1 hour 09 minutes 45 seconds, Sanjay in 1 hour 10 minutes 32 seconds and Ramji in 1 hour 10 minutes 52 seconds.

Santoshi, who recently returned from running the London Marathon, was a close rival of Army's Purnalakshmi Neupane. Purnalakshmi finished second with a time of 1 hour 25 minutes 57 seconds. Last year Purnalakshmi stood fourth. APF's Pushpa Bhandari came third.

She clocked 1 hour 26 minutes 43 seconds. Last year, Pushpa was second. Army's Krishan Pandye (1 hour 30 minutes 57 seconds), India's Asha TP (1 hour 34 minutes 01) and Sindhuli's Manju Sunuwar (1 hour 51 minutes 48) won the fourth to sixth place respectively. Manju finished third in the college run last year.

The male and female winners of the half marathon won a prize of Rs 1 lakh 50 each. The second to sixth runners-up received 75, 50, 30, 20 and 10,000 prizes respectively.

The theme of this year's Kantipur Half Marathon, presented by Global IME Bank, was 'Let's Run for a Greener Tomorrow'. The half marathon started from the Central Business Park premises of the organizer Kantipur Publications Limited at Thapathali.  Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli inaugurated the competition.

Under the same competition, Ajay Pandey (21 minutes 24.22 seconds), Amrit Vishwakarma (21 minutes 31.25 seconds), Vishwaram Kunwar (21 minutes 56.57 seconds) won the first, second and third place respectively in the 7 km college run for boys. Vishwaram was second last year. For

girls, Susan Karki has been the winner for the second year in a row. She completed the distance in 29 minutes 07 seconds. She also won the race last year in 29 minutes and 55 seconds. Ayushma Acharya was second and Manisha Thapa was third. 

Vikesh Ghimire became the first in the 5 km corporate and celeb run for men with a time of 18 minutes and 38 seconds. He also won the corporate run last year  Revat Dahal (19 minutes 16 seconds) was second and Sher Bahadur Tharu (19 minutes 22 seconds) was third. Regina Dulal won the title for

corporate women. She completed the 5 km race in 24 minutes and 10 seconds. Valika KC finished second with a time of 24 minutes 38 seconds and Kalpana Maharjan came third with a time of 26 minutes 22 seconds.

Prem and Aisharya win in wheelchair

Prem Bik and Aisharya Kumal have won the 3 km wheelchair category. While Prem won the title for the first time in that race, Aishwarva became the champion for the third time in a row. For men's wheelchair, Ramkaji Mizar was second and former winner Ramesh Khatri was third.

On the women's side, Aishwarya beat Yamikumari Jhankrimar and Rajni Rai. Yami came second and Rajini came third. Last year also, Yami and Rajni achieved the same position. Yami is a five-time winner. The winner of the wheelchair race won Rs 35,000, the second runner-up Rs 25,000 and the third runner-up Rs 15,000.