The Hindu : Sport : Football awareness run an instant success

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Oct 15, 2007
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Sport - Sports : General

Football awareness run an instant success

CHENNAI: It was a massive turnout. Young and old provided a colourful setting at the Marina Beach as the ‘Aachi Masala Football Awareness Run’ of the Chennai Football Association was an instant success in terms of the vibrant response.

It did not matter that there was a slight delay for the start by which time the morning sun had transcended from being comfortable to a bit warm, nor the fact that the run could not be down the main road, but the internal service lane on the Marina Beach shore.

But when Chennai Mayor, M. Subramaniam, swung the flag for the ‘go’ signal, the gathering of several thousands raised a roar and started off for the near 3km run, jog and even walk to Anna Square.

A senior CFA official, absolutely delighted at the response of the football fans, estimated that at least 10,000 were present for the run.

May be that was an overestimate, perhaps there were a few thousands less, but there was no doubting the support for this common man’s sport.

Major chunk

Club-level footballers, senior players and academy trainees formed the major chunk among the thousands and then there were those who wished to be part of it.

That included the big numbers from the Kerala Sports Persons Association (KESPA), which included volleyballers, basketballers, swimmers and athletes, many of them Nationals and internationals in their time.

Carrying placards to highlight that “football is for all,” the runners wound their way through the lane parallel to the main road to the finish.

There were any number of morning joggers and walkers for company and several other curious onlookers who lined up just to have a feel of the atmosphere. The dignitaries included big sporting names like Shiny Wilson, V. Baskaran (both Olympians) and Jaysankar Menon (all star Asian basketballer), among others.

Then there were administrators like W.I. Davaram, TNAA President, K. Murugan, VFI Secretary-General, Atulya Misra, SDAT Member-Secretary, C.R. Visswanathan, CFA and TFA President, Cine stars Anu Hasan and Parthiban.

Visswanathan said arrangements were being made to distribute participation certificates to all. But what really moved him was the parting word from the Mayor as he left the scene, “I will clear your request (Kannapar Thidal ground) shortly.”

Finally, at the end of the run, CFA could not have asked for more.

Easy for Dilip

Dilip Kumar (TNBSA) chalked out a comfortable 3-0 win over Samarjit (CBA) in the sub-junior snooker final of the Abirami Mega Mall-TNBSA state ranking tournament here on Sunday.

The result: Sub-junior final (best of five frames): Dilip Kumar (TNBSA) bt Samarjit (CBA) 58-40, 68-2, 58-42.

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