India's Ram Singh Yadav attained the 'B' qualifying standard for the London Olympics at the Marathon.
The Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon 2012 kicked off earlier today with around 38,000 people participating.
The event, which was held in phases, saw the amateurs take off at the starting blocks ahead of the serious competitors.
Many of the participants were running to raise funds for various causes.
Despite the absence of defending champions Girma Assefa and Koren Yal, both Ethiopians, the IAAF Gold Label status event, which is offering an enhanced prize money of US $3,40,000, attracted several top athletes like ex-world champion Luke Kibet (Kenya), Ethiopia's Siraj Gena and Kenya's Laban Moiben.
The also saw its glamour quotient with Bollywood actor John Abraham and former tennis player Vijay Amritraj as the two ambassadors for the Mumbai Marathon, the organisers said.
Samir, a bank manager, working in Singapore, who ran the half - marathon of Singapore Standard Chartered Marathon 2011 in 2hr 23min did 2hr 11min for the Mumbai Half-marathon challenge. He improved the time from 12mins. It was his personal best time.
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