MADURAI
Over 2,000 people, including about 400 girls and women, participated in the first mini marathon conducted by HCL Technologies here on Sunday.
The event saw the participants competing in three categories – 10 km, 5 km and 3 km – with enthusiasm and vigour. The maximum number of participants were in the age group of 20-30. Collector K. Veera Raghava Rao and Madurai Commissioner of Police Mahesh Kumar Agarwal too ran the 10-km marathon.
Srimathi Shivashankar, Vice-President, HCL Technologies, said the company intended to make the marathon an annual event and invite several others to participate.
“We are always glued to our gadgets and rarely have time to spend with family. Several people working in corporates face several challenges in the form of obesity and stress. This activity may create an environment of fitness,” she said.
Abhishek Mishra, who completed a 10-km ocean swim, over 400 km of cycling and a double marathon (84 km) to earn the title ‘Ultraman’, had many words of encouragement to offer to the participants.
He said he wanted to specifically encourage people from tier II cities to take part in longer marathons. “More practice sessions will be conducted so that at least a specific set of people take part in these events,” he said.
Yogendra Kumar and L. Kalai Selvi secured the first position in the men and women categories of the 10-km run respectively.
