The Hindu : Sport : Tremendous response for Chennai Marathon; top runners to take part

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Tremendous response for Chennai Marathon; top runners to take part

Chennai: Some of the national athletes who figured in the long distance races in the recent Olympic Games at Beijing will be seen in action at the MARG-Chennai Marathon to be run on Sunday.

The half-marathon event (21.09km) has evoked tremendous response from all sections and from different parts of the country. The number of entries registered for the main event had crossed the 5,000 mark by Saturday evening.

Quite predictably, the competition is going to be stiff for the Rs.10 lakh prize money to be paid to the winner.

Several national camp runners will be vying for the honours. They include the record-holder in 10,000m, Surinder Singh, who took part at Beijing.

Satish Kumar, Ajay Kumar, Sandeep Kumar, Naresh Pal, Saji Mathew, Sivananda are some of the names that figure prominently in the list of runners registered for the main event.

In the women’s section, the focus will be on the 10,000m runner from Kerala, Preeja Sridharan, who also took part in the recent Olympics.

Meanwhile, the torches from different part of the State arrived on Friday morning and were welcomed into the city with palpable enthusiasm. The entries for the other events, including the 7km City Run has evoked incredible response. As many as 70,000 runners may figure in the event.

Murugappa Gold Cup

Hockey activity is all set to resume in the city when the Madras Cricket Club-Murugappa Gold Cup tournament gets underway at the Mayor Radhakrishnan Stadium on September 3. The final is scheduled for September 14.

The ten teams in the fray will be divided into two groups of five each with the top two in each section moving into the semifinals.

The winner will get an enhanced prize money of Rs. 1,50,000, and the runner-up Rs. 100,000.

Arun Murugappan, Managing Director, Parry Enterprises India Ltd. in the Murugappa Group, addressing the media on Friday at the Madras Cricket Club, regretted the inability to conduct the event last year owing to circumstances beyond the control of the organising unit. However, he hoped the competition this time would be keen and hold the interest of the spectators.

Mr. Shakeel Ahmed, former International Grade I umpire, will be the Technical Director, assisted by T. Nicolas (Tournament Officer) and Muhammad Munir (Umpires Manager).

Some of the matches will be played under floodlights, and the final is to be telecast live by DD (Sports).

While welcoming the gathering, Mr. A. Manickavasagam, President, Madras Cricket Club, pinpointed the promotional role played by the Club where “sport is a way of life.”

On Wednesday, the traditional opening match between MCC and The Hindu XI will be played at 6 p.m.

BPCL, the defending champion, begins its campaign against Air India on September 5.

The pools: A: IOC, Karnataka XI, Mumbai XI, Indian Railways, and Indian Overseas Bank (city league champion): B: Air India, Army XI, BPCL, Namdhari XI and Sports Hostel, Orissa.

St. John’s IRS triumphs

St. John’s International Residential School notched up a 4-1 win in the final over St. Gabriel’s HS on Friday to clinch the title in the Fr. Mohanraj Memorial Trophy under-15 inter-School football tournament.

The results:

Final: St. John’s 4 (Pongsako 2, Somesh, Heibosmi) bt St. Gabriel’s 1 (Jerald). Semifinals: St. John’s 3 (Heibosmi, Adarsh, Vikash) bt Doveton Corrie BHSS 1 (John); St. Gabriels 3 (P. Braison Jaswanthraj, M. Venkatesh, S. Kishore) bt Vidya Mandir HSS 1 (Varun).

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