Meet India's marathon men who completed a unique Grand Slam
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. When Bharatkumar Jain first decided to do the marathon equivalent of a Grand Slam—the top six of the world’s marathons—he wasn’t chasing a record. He had already registered for three, so he figured he could just attempt the rest and check them off his list.
On Sunday, Jain became possibly the first Indian to run all six Marathon Majors—Tokyo, Boston, London, Berlin, Chicago and New York—in a single calendar year. Another Indian trailed him by about four minutes in New York as Vishwas Patil, a US-based techie from Satara, also achieved the feat. The only difference being that Patil had already got his sixth star—given to those who complete all six majors in a lifetime—in Boston.
He is technically four runs down into a second cycle of six-in-a-row. While several Indians have got their six stars, none before these two had done them all in a single calendar year, according to the data available on Abbott World Marathon Majors (AWMM). Many runners from around the world achieve all six in a year—32 did it in 2023, one in 2022, 20 in 2019, for example.
But for an Indian runner, with logistical challenges, visa and travel, unfamiliar weather, entry obstacles and big financial requirements, the difficulties add up. But both Jain, a 45-year-old businessman from Mumbai who had an angioplasty a few years ago, and Patil, a 50-year-old US-based techie who started running only six years ago, the six-in-a-year came with respectable timings, and as a result of considerable determination. Jain ran the Tokyo Marathon in 3 hours, 56 minutes 45 seconds on 3 March; Boston in 04:24:01 on 15 April; London in 04:03:30 on 21 April; Berlin in 03:55:47 on 29 September; and Chicago in 03:51:27 on 13 October.
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