1,000 participate in ultramarathon

Around 1,000 participants from different walks of life braved the cold on Sunday to take part in the first-ever ultramarathon held in Gurgaon.

Around 1,000 participants from different walks of life braved the cold on Sunday to take part in the first-ever ultramarathon held here.

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The 63.3-km marathon —which also included other shorter distance category runs — was flagged off by the deputy commissioner of police, Traffic, Bharti Arora. Anil Kumar won the race by finishing it in 4 hrs 40 minutes. As many as 500 runners who ran in 5-km and 10-km categories got medals and certificates while the toppers of all the categories were awarded with the replica of an autorickshaw.

The founder of Running And Living Infotainment, Rahul Verghese, said, “We organise 30 runs a year, and our goal is to ensure participation of 200 million people.” Apart from some professional athletes, people of all walks of life participated in the event. The municipal commissioner of Gurgaon, Sudhir Rajpal, ran in 5-km category and came in top 10.

The organiser said that entries came from villagers, CEOs, defence personnel, diplomats and six Kenyan athletes. Indian participants in the age group of five to 70 years were from Chennai, Mumbai, Indore, Ambala, Hisar, Kolkata, Bangalore, Gaya, Jhansi, Patna, Dehradun.