The Hindu : Sport / Athletics : All-India half marathon today

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Oct 19, 2004

Sport

Sport - Athletics

All-India half marathon today

MYSORE, OCT. 18. The inaugural Mysore Dassera Games' all-India half marathon event, the first of its kind in this part of the country, will get off to a start here on Tuesday.

The participation is predominantly a Karnataka affair with a few runners from Mumbai and the Air Force. But then the organisers have kept the options open for more outstation participation.

While Girish Chandra Tiwari and Shamsher Singh alongwith Manoj are expected to lead the Indian Air Force challenge against the likes of I. Shivanand and a host of Railway runners the distaff side has brought to the fore runners like Western Railway's L. Leelamma and Southern's V.V. Sindhu, winners at the Thiruvananthapuram marathon, in 2003 and 2004, respectively. Also in the fray is Bangalore girl Preeti L. Rao who participated in the World half marathon held at New Delhi a fortnight ago.

L. Manjula and B.L. Bharathi also will be watched with keen interest though both of them will be running in the 21km event for the first time.

The event carries a prize money of Rs. 12,000 for the winners in either section. The runner-up and the third place finisher will be richer by Rs. 10,000 and Rs. 8,000 respectively while the three following places will be given Rs. 4,000. — Our Sports Reporter