'Needed Rs 3000 urgently, so decided to run'; Mumbai marathon sees unusual winner

MUMBAI: No shoes, no tracksuit, just a worn-out pair of sandals grabbed in her hands and a sari.

This was 47-year-old Ramabai Ranveer, awing onlookers. Her story is unlike the others who attended the marathon. It was not for the craze of the event but a dire need to find Rs 3000 that Ramabai decided to run the marathon. She ended up winning Rs 3,000 in the marathon held at Ambajogai, Beed, Maharashtra.

The 'Bharatiya Shikshan Prasarak Sanstha Amrit Dawood' marathon was part of the Sports Day celebrations. In the three-kilometre marathon, Ramabai started wearing sandals but later on felt her legs trembling and then decided to run barefoot. She finished the marathon in thirty minutes, earlier than her younger competitors. The organisers were surprised to see the unusual winner, wrapped in a saree and carrying sandals. The footage went viral on social media. Pooja, who finished second, received Rs 2,000.

Ramabai is a resident of Potra in Hingoli district. Her husband died in 2012. She has nothing of her own. Ramabai is the breadwinner of her family, working as a domestic helper to provide education for her two children. Her daughter Aarti is a second-year B.Sc. graduate student at Visva-Bharati Mahavidyalaya, Nanded.

“My younger daughter Aarti is good at studies. She needed Rs 3,200 to buy books for the Maharashtra Public Service Commission exam. I couldn't arrange it. She hasn't spoken to me for eight days. I felt sad. That's when I came to know about the marathon. I registered my name” said Ramabai.