Sunday morning witnessed the roaring success of Raipur’s first student driven marathon with more than 2200 registered runners running for the cause of Swachh Bharat from the environs on Telibandha Talab. Braving the early morning hours and fighting lethargy, participants started arriving at the Marine Drive from all parts of the Raipur and nearby cities since 5 am. “It is important to take small steps towards the changes we so often only speak about. This is what brought us here”, says Swetha student of NIT Raipur.

Before the event started, no stone was left unturned by IIM Raipur students to ensure the smooth execution of the event. Kits including t-shirts, caps and bibs were distributed to registered participants on Friday and Saturday at prominent points in the city. Buses were also arranged from all points of the city for participants. Ambulance, health check, route markers and volunteers apart from water and glucose were all in place before the start of the event while spot registrations continued smoothly at the multiple registration points.

Chief guests international athletes Ms. Babita Phogat, Ms. Deepika Kumari, IIM Director Dr. B.S. Sahay and Mr Rajeev Srivastava IPS, former DGP and first Sports Director of Chhattisgarh were felicitated at 6.30 am. Ms Babita Phogat, who is one of India’s most famous wrestlers with medals at Commonwealth Games, Asian Games and Rio Olympics and inspiration for the movie ‘Dangal’ and ace archer Ms. Deepika Kumari one time world no. 1 archer in recurve and Arjuna Award and Padma Shri awardee were prime crowd pullers. The chief guests proceeded to declare the marathon open and lead the gathered participants in the Swachhta Pledge. The pledge saw all participants vowing to spend at least 2 hours a week towards a Clean India as well as inspiring100 other individuals to take up the same pledge. Director B.S Sahay stressed on the importance of the Swachh Bharat movement and the stellar role played by students in initiating this change in our country.

 After the pledge, the 500 runners for the flagship 11km run assembled and within no time the chief guests flagged off the first run to thunderous applause. Twenty minutes later, the 5 km run was also flagged off jointly by the chief guests. Run together by an unprecedented 1700 registered participants, this kicked off the event in earnest.

With first time runners yearning just to complete their first marathon and others looking to win, the winners for the mini-marathon completed the event in under an hour. In all, the registration desk reported 2226 registrations, with 37% of them being women, 512 having run for the flagship 11 km run and 1714 having run for the 5 km Dream Run.

Semir from Ethiopia walked away with the first prize for men in the 11km event while Monika Chaudhary won the women’s event. Both won cash prizes worth INR 50,000 as well as goodies worth INR 7000. 5km event winners were Aravind Kumar Yadav and Rooma Devi for men and women respectively walking away with prizes of INR 15,000 and goodies worth INR 7000 each. Prizes were also given to the top 7 finishers (men and women) in the 11 km event and runners up in the 5km event for a total prize money of INR 2.5 lakhs apart from goodies.

Post the marathon, audiences were spellbound by the performance of a Nukkad Natak by students of Bhavan’s school on the theme of Swachh Bharat followed by a dance by the team from IIM Raipur. Anuj Sabarwal, first year MBA student of IIM then delivered a stirring poem about the need for Swachh Bharat which was followed by an enthralling performance by a team from the Ministry of Culture, Chhattisgarh. Various dignitaries were then welcomed on stage including the Minister for Panchayat and Rural Development Shri Ajay Chandrakar, City Mayor Shri Pramod Dubey and Shri. Rajamuni Tamrakar, Sr Division RS Manager, IOCL who was the title sponsor for the event.

The central idea about the event was to adopt of a village and impart knowledge regarding sanitation and build toilets. To fulfil this promise IIM Raipur hasdecided to adopt the village Guma in Raipur district situated 50 kms from Raipur city. Guma has a population of 1650 people living in 250 households. Due to lack of proper sanitation facilities there has been a prominent problem of open defecation. To counter this, the students of IIM Raipur will donate entire amount collected through registration in order to build toilets and curb the problem of open defecation in the village. Post the prize ceremony, Shri Ajay Chandrakar, Minister of Panchayat and Rural Development, handed over the letter of consent stating the understanding of village adoption to the representative of Guma village to fulfil this pledge.

This was followed by enlightening speeches of the dignitaries. The event came to a close with the felicitation of all dignitaries with mementos by Prof. Vinita Sahay, on behalf of IIM Raipur. She thanked all present for turning up in large numbers to make the event a grand success.

Using the RFID chip to track the timings for the 11km marathon and mass turn up for a marathon within city limits, the marathon was a grand success in ensuring Raipur a spot on the list of student-run marathons across India. First time runners and seasoned runners urged for the event to be conducted annually with the same spirit and proficiency. Special award winners Janrao Khushalrao Lonkar (77 year old) and Sarju Prasad Sahu (80 year old), both of whom completed the 11 km run were most enthusiastic of a repeat performance next year.

Tags: iim raipurmarathon