The owner of jersey number 7273 was ready in time for the Delhi half marathon — so what if he competed some 785 miles away from the actual course of the race, and finished an hour after the eventual winners.

Badrinath Prathi longed to be part of the half-marathon but his professional commitments came in the way as an obstacle; without flinching, the Delhi team physio was up at 7 am on Sunday morning at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium in Uppal - the same time when the half-marathon began in the capital — wearing the same dress as designated to run along simultaneously.

And after 54 laps of the ground and timing 2 hours and 17 seconds on the clock strapped around his waist, Badri, as he’s fondly called, raised his hands up in celebration as members of the Delhi Ranji squad, who had just arrived for practice ahead of their Ranji game against Hyderabad, gave him a standing ovation to applaud his commitment of running 21 kilometres.

“It was my childhood desire to run a marathon and I have been preparing close to four weeks for this half-marathon.“I always look forward to visiting Hyderabad, which is my native place. Ironically when I finally got here, I was wishing I was back in Delhi ,” laughs the Hyderabadi. “That Ethiopian guy who won, what’s his timing? He did it under an hour right? I was down with fever, otherwise I could have improved on my timing,” he says.

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