As part of the golden jubilee celebrations of the Agricultural College and Research Institute (AC&RI) Madurai, students from the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, school and college students from educational institutions from the southern districts and the public participated in the ‘Yanamalai Mini Marathon’ here on Friday.
Both the enthusiastic men and women runners began running from as early as 6.45 a.m.
While the men started from the Madura College to reach the AC & RI campus, the women runners began their marathon run at the Gandhi memorial museum to reach the same end point. A distance of 16 km and 8 km were covered respectively under both categories.
76-year-old participant
Faculty from the AC & RI said that while they had opened the marathon to persons above the age of 15 years, they had a number of participants across different age groups with the oldest participant being 76 years old.
The marathon was flagged off by District Collector L. Subramanian and M. Ravi, Inspector General of Police. Corporation Commissioner C. Kathiravan and V.K. Subbu Raj, Secretary to the Government of India, New Delhi were present at the start of the marathon. C. Sylendra Babu, ADGP, an alumnus of the TNAU participated in the marathon. K. Dakshinamoorthy, a physical education student from Alagappa University, Karaikudi, completed the marathon first in the men’s category and S. Padmavathy, an M. Com student of the Dr N.G.P. Arts and Science College Coimbatore bagged the first place in the women’s category.
Both the winners were awarded cash prizes of Rs. 15,000 each. As many as 25 other prizes were distributed to participants for competing in the marathon as well.
