Over 4,200 take part in half marathon

The third ‘One Race’ Jalandhar half marathon ‘Daur Jalandhar’ was organised at the local Guru Gobind Singh Stadium today in which international veteran athlete 114-year-old Fauja Singh, India’s first blade runner Major DP Singh, Lt General Chandpuria, former Cabinet Minister Amarjit Singh Samra, MD of Capital Bank Sarvjit Singh Samra, Olympians Manpreet Singh and Mandeep Singh flagged off the run.

They gave a go-ahead to runners participating in the 21.1 km race, the 10-km race and 5-km race from 6.30am to 7:30 am. To encourage runners, Municipal Corporation Commissioner Gautam Jain participated in the 10-km race. More than 4,200 runners of all age groups from Jalandhar and surrounding districts, besides Chandigarh, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Delhi, Mumbai and Ahmedabad participated in this race.

With the aim of spreading awareness about mental health, like last year, autistic children were invited to participate in the 3-km race with the help of the Soch Autism Society of Punjab without any sound and the race started with a ‘Quiet Flag Off’.

This year, in view of the large number of runners participating in the Jalandhar race, the race route was divided into two parts. The 21-km and 10-km runners started from Guru Gobind Singh Stadium and ran from Icon Mall via Cool Road to Urban Estate Phase-2 Market, Taj Food World via 66 Feet Road, Curo Mall, White Diamond, Jalandhar Heights, CT Institute, took a U-turn and returned to Guru Gobind Singh Stadium on the same route.

The 5-km runners started from Guru Gobind Singh Stadium and ran from Mall Road, Agarwal Dhaba, Johal Market, Income Tax Colony, Urban Estate-2 Market lights and returned to Guru Gobind Singh Stadium on the same route. This time the winners were given cash prizes of Rs 4,50,000.

The prizes were distributed by international athletes Harmilan Bains and Sarvjit Singh Samra. Harmilan Bains praised the half marathon and said if they want to produce international level athletes, then such events should be held as much as possible.

In the men’s 21.1-km race in the half marathon, Jaswinder Singh stood first, Anil Kumar Yadav stood second and Rohit Dahiya stood third, while in the women’s category, Pooja stood first, Ruhi Bohra stood second and Pooja Pandey stood third. Similarly, in the men’s 10 km race, Sikander Panwar, Lovepreet Singh and Ajay Singh stood first, second and third, respectively, while in the women’s category, Seema Devi, Sameer Aulakh and Kiran Sodhi stood first, second and third, respectively, while in the men’s 5-km race, Tarun Kumar Mishra, Gaurav Chandra Bhat and Ranjeev Kumar stood first, second and third, respectively, and in the women’s 5-km race, Gurjit Kaur stood first, Prachi Kumari and Vandana Kumari stood first, second and third.

Apart from this, cash prizes were given to the runners who came first, second and third in each age group.

To make the race a success, the Jalandhar District Administration, the Jalandhar Police Commissionerate, the Jalandhar Traffic Police, the MC, the Jalandhar Running Club, Sriman Hospital, Thind Eye Hospital, Lyallpur Khalsa College, Doaba College, KMV Sanskriti School, Castle Tuta, Soch Autism Society, Bisleri, Policy Bazaar, Roza Herbal and Roohafza provided support.