The otherwise deserted stretches of the city wore a festive look on Sunday with more than 20,000 citizens making their presence felt in different segments of the seventh edition of the Airtel Hyderabad Marathon.
For an event that has become an integral part of the ‘Happening Hyderabad’ concept of the State government and rated the second best in India after the Mumbai Marathon, it was obvious that the participants enjoyed taking part in it. It as was evident by the turnout for the event, where a cross-section of the society was present. The participants, including differently-abled, folk artists, and schoolchildren, showed great enthusiasm on an overcast morning.
About 1,000 people participated in the full marathon flagged off by Hyderabad City Police Commissioner M. Mahender Reddy and about 5,000 ran the half-marathon flagged off by Municipal Commissioner B. Janardhan Reddy. The attractive 10K run, flagged off by Cyberabad Commissioner of Police Sandeep Shandilya, featured about 6,500 participants. On Saturday, about 6,500 participated in a 5K run.
With the Hyderabad Runner Society taking care of the nitty-gritty of the marathon, a complaint-free event was organised with runners’ safety given the top priority. Over 21 medical stations dotted the routes of the run with about 250 paramedics on standby having five fully-equipped ambulances. One of the innovative concepts highlighting the concern of the participants was a 15-bed emergency medical set-up at Gachibowli Stadium.
“We are thankful to the sponsors, who include the Telangana government, the Police Department, Airtel and more importantly the 3,500 volunteers, for the smooth conduct of the marathon,” said an official of the Hyderabad Runners.
IT Minister K.T. Rama Rao gave away the prizes to the top finishers in the presence of Venkatesh Vijayraghavan, CEO, Bharti Airtel (A.P. & Telangana region).
