In terms of area, India is the seventh largest country in the world. With 1.4 billion inhabitants, India is even on a par with its northern neighbour China in first place.
Although India has 19 cities with more than two million inhabitants, including three (Mumbai, New Delhi and Calcutta) with more than ten million inhabitants, the country also has a lot of beautiful nature to offer. For example, the Karakoram Mountains and the Himalayas are partly located in India. With Kangchenjunga at 8,586 metres, India even has one of the 14 eight-thousanders. Kangchenjunga is the third highest mountain in the world and lies on the border between India and Nepal.
The most popular sport in India is cricket. Hockey is also one of the popular sports, while football is only played intensively in some parts of the country. Internationally, however, top-level sport has a very low status in India. For example, medals are rarely won at the Olympic Games.
The biggest running events in India
Running events in India mainly attract runners from abroad. Besides some big city marathons, there are also one or two beautiful countryside runs.
The Tata Steel Kolkata 25K is very well known. The 25-kilometre race is one of the fastest running events worldwide over this distance and is always held in Kolkata towards the end of the year. Over the 10 kilometres, there is a similarly popular running event, the World 10K Bangalore. The event, held in spring, is usually won by world-class runners from Africa. In 2008, for example, the former half marathon world record holder Zersenay Tadese (Eritrea) triumphed in an impressive 27:51 minutes.
Half marathons and marathons in India
Other well-known running events in India are the Delhi Half Marathon in October, the Ladakh Marathon in September, the Bengalaru Marathon in October and the Mumbai Marathon in January. The Mumbai Marathon is the largest marathon in India in terms of participants.
A multi-day ultra stage race through India is also "La Ultra - The High". Here, a distance of up to 555 kilometres is covered over several stages.
All Running Races in India (sorted by date) can be found in the following overview:
Running competitions 2026 in India
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