The Hindu : Sport : Cash prizes for Salwan Marathon winners

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Cash prizes for Salwan Marathon winners

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: The Mittal Champions Trust would offer prize money to the school children in the Salwan Marathon to be organised at the Army Equestrian Centre, Brar Square, Delhi Cantonment, on Sunday.

The winners in the various age groups for boys and girls will get Rs.10,000 for the gold, Rs.5,000 for the silver and Rs.2,500 for the bronze. Athletes finishing fourth to 10th will also get Rs.500 each.

“Though our primary aim is to promote athletes in winning medals in the Olympics, we are excited to be part of this run. The biggest way to tap talent is from the schools, but there is no structure. This run also gives a chance for the visually impaired girls.

“Five of my sports persons, boxer Dinesh Kumar, athlete Preeja Sreedharan, shooter Harveen Srao, archer Bombayala Devi and World Championship bronze-medallist wrestler Ramesh Kumar, will be running with five visually impaired athletes,” said Manisha Malhotra, the administrator of the Mittal Champions Trust, here on Saturday.

The Trustee of the Salwan Education Trust, Inder Dutt Salwan, said that the cross country run, conducted for the last 15 years, was named a marathon, despite being spread over 3, 5 and 8 kilometres for various age groups, to give the children the excitement of being part of a marathon, and slowly graduate to that level some day.

“We have had participation of about 46,000 children in one season. Now, we don’t want the numbers, and are actually reducing it, to manage the show properly,” he said. The run will be flagged off by the Chief Minister of Delhi, Sheila Dikshit, starting first with the race for visually challenged girls and boys at 8.30 a.m.

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