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Vadodara Marathon gets ‘Smallest City Biggest Marathon’ global recognition from AIMS
Vadodara Marathon gets ‘Smallest City Biggest Marathon’ global recognition from AIMS
3rd edition dedicated to Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad III as the city celebrates his 150th birth anniversary
Ahmedabad,
Gujarat,
India
(prbd.net)
18/01/2012
Ahmedabad, 18 January 2012: The Vadodara International Half Marathon has emerged as the biggest such event in a non-metro in India and the upcoming third edition on 5th of February, 2012 is already setting new records. With 40,000 registrations already, Vadodara Marathon (VM) has become the biggest such event in India, overtaking the 38,000 odd numbers of people who participated in the just concluded Mumbai Marathon.
This year’s event is being dedicated to Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad III as the city celebrates his 150th birth anniversary. The Vadodara Marathon will have 3 races: 21 km Half Marathon, 15 km Marathon and 5 km Joy Run.
Accredited to the Association of International Marathon and Distance Races (AIMS), the Vadodara Marathon is the recipient of the AIMS gold medal for ‘smallest city, biggest Marathon’. AIMS is a member based organisation of more than 300 of the world’s leading distance races, from over 95 countries and territories with its objective being to foster and promote distance running throughout the world.
Elaborating on this mega event, Ms. Tejal Amin, chairperson of the organising committee of the Vadodara Marathon, said, “We are now on the global map and out of the 40,000 participants registered for the upcoming Marathon, there are around 216 foreigners coming from different countries like Ethiopia, Kenya, Israel, Hungary, Italy and Dubai. There are around 3000 plus participants from outside Gujarat. Within India, we are amongst the few to have got accreditation from the international distance races body, AIMS. In the coming years we hope to continue breaking the previous records and get more recognition and visibility globally. VM is completely a citizen’s initiative and its aim is to make Vadodara an even flatter city to live in by cutting across all socio-economic barriers.”
The VM team believes in ‘inclusive growth’ and towards this end it attempts to involve people from all walks of life to be a part of this event. Apart from regular participants, there are 1200 sponsored runners from below the poverty line category as well as special children.
As part of the 150 years celebration of the Maharaja’s birth anniversary various events have been organised since December 2011 – rock concert, musical concert, heritage walk, release of book on the life of the Maharaja and an exhibition showcasing his life and achievements. ‘Gaekwad Salon’, an art exhibition featuring 50 young artists from Vadodara is going to be held from 20-22 January. This will be followed by the Sayaji Smriti Krida Mahotsav from 28-30 January. A grand musical concert featuring singer Sunidhi Chauhan has been organised post-marathon on the same evening.
The funds collected as part of the Vadodara Marathon are used to make Vadodara city cleaner and greener. The total prize money for the event this year will be Rs. 25 lakh. The Team VM consists of corporate heads, young professionals, teachers, homemakers and artists - all provide their voluntary help towards making this event a huge success.
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