Kathmandu, Mar. 24:Tribhuwan Army Club’s Deepak Adhikari and Bagmati Province’s Santoshi Shrestha became the champions at the major event of the 3rd Right to Protein Run organised by the Nepal Veterinary Association in the Kathmandu Valley on Saturday.

Deepak and Santoshi came first in the men’s and women’s half-marathon categories respectively. It was the second win for Deepak and Santoshi in the category in the marathon’s third edition. While Deepak won the half-marathon last year, Santoshi won the first edition and missed participating in the second as she was abroad.

The half-marathon’s route started from Dasharath Rangasala with the runners reaching Radhe Radhe, Bhaktapur, and returning. Deepak completed the run first at 1 hour, 7 minutes and 33 seconds.

Deepak was only nine seconds faster than the second-positioned APF’s Gopi Chandra Parki and 10 seconds faster than the third-positioned Tirtha Pun. Army’s Narendra Rawal and Khadka Bahadur Khadka came fourth and fifth respectively.

Meanwhile, Santoshi finished first among the women by finishing the race at 1 hour, 20 minutes and 19 seconds. She was well ahead of others as the second-positioned Rammaya Budha of Nepal Police finished the race at 1 hour, 21 minutes and 56 seconds. APF’s Pushpa Bhandari came third after crossing the finish line at 1 hour, 23 minutes and 2 seconds.

Similarly, Army’s Purna Laxmi Neupane finished fourth and APF’s Fulmati Rana came fifth in the women’s half-marathon. The top five winners in the half-marathon from both categories received a purse of Rs. 100,000, Rs. 75,000, Rs. 50,000, Rs. 40,000 and Rs. 30,000 respectively.

Likewise, the top five finishers in the men’s 10-km category belonged to the Tribhuwan Army Club. Mukesh Bahadur Pal finished first while Sanjay Shrestha, Gajendra Rai, Subash Karki and Shreekas Rai finished second, third, fourth and fifth respectively.

Army’s women racers also dominated the women’s 5-km category as Srijana Pandey and Nirmala KC finished first and third respectively. Nepal Police Club’s Rajpura Pachhai finished second in the category.

The organisers had also organised other categories, such as Run for Autism 5-km, School-level 5-km and Wheel-chair 3-km for both men and women.

The ‘Right to Protein Run’ is a race organised to raise awareness on protein consumption. According to the organisers, Nepal is a protein deficient country as protein availability per person per day in Nepal is 46 grams against world average of 77 grams.