Defending champion John Kelai of Kenya, as expected, won the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon on Sunday.

The 31-year-old proved a class above the rest of the field to cover the gruelling 42-km course in two hours, 12 minutes and 03 seconds, an improvement on last year's effort of 2:12.27 seconds.

The victory made him richer by US $31,000.

Ethiopia's Mulu Seboka, winner in 2005 and '06, completed a hat-trick of victories in the race, winning the women's event in a personal best of 2:30.3 seconds.

Ramsingh Yadav emerged the fastest Indian runner. The 27-year-old , finished in 2:18.22 seconds, the best ever time recorded by a home runner.

Around 33,000 runners, including celebrities, corporate executives, students and housewives, joined in the fifth annual run, which included the 42-km full marathon, 21-km half-marathon, senior citizens` run, wheel chair event and a six-km 'dream run'.