Over 15,000 Enthusiastic Runners Participate in Vizag–Navy Marathon

Over 15,000 Enthusiastic Runners Participate in Vizag–Navy Marathon

The fifth edition of Vizag-Navy Marathon, the largest running event in the “City of Destiny”, was conducted at the Beach Road on 18 November 18. 15,149 enthusiastic runners participated in 42.2 Km Courage Run, 21.1 Km Destiny Run, 10 Km Friendship Run and 05 Km Run for Fun, starting from Vishwapriya Function Hall on the pristine Beach Road along the Bay of Bengal. The highlight of this year was the participation of 20 runners from Singapore Navy in the Friendship Run, to commemorate 25 years of bilateral exercises between India and Singapore, “SIMBEX-18”.

The event accrued tremendous response from all walks of life. Participants from all age groups, children with parents, veterans, youth, naval personnel, foreigners and school children ran side by side, stride by stride. In addition to the participants, citizens of the city came out in large numbers to cheer the runner’s with spontaneity and enjoy the celebratory atmosphere from early in the morning.  

351 runners participated in 42 Km Courage Run which was flagged off at 04:15 hrs by Capt Animesh Nagar, Command Sports Officer ENC and Race Director Dr Murli Nannapaneni while 2254 runners participated in the 21 Km Destiny Run which was flagged off at 05:15 hrs by Cmde Arvind Sharma, Commanding Officer, INS Kalinga. The 10 Km Friendship  Run was flagged off at 06:30 hrs by Rear Adm Edwin Leong, Fleet Commander, Republic of Singapore Navy in the presence of  Rear Adm DK Tripathi, NM, Flag Officer Commanding Eastern Fleet where over 4291 runners including those from Singapore Navy participated. The 05 Km Run for Fun witnessed record participation of 8253 runners and was flagged off at 07:00 hrs by Cdr V Sriramulu (Retd) a nonagenarian veteran and World Masters  Athletics Award Winner  and Vice Adm Karambir Singh, PVSM, AVSM, Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief, ENC.  It was a proud moment for the parents who ran with their children and matched strides with some eminent marathon runners. Vizag Navy Marathon has become the signature running event in the City of Destiny, Visakhapatnam which has been accredited by the AIMS - Association of International Marathons, which proudly makes VNM a internationally recognised event and a qualifier run for the ‘World Marathon Majors’.

The event was conducted without any untoward incident thanks to the effective traffic management from Police Department and a host of facilities manned by volunteers manning hydration points, medical points and restrooms throughout the route. An event of this scale and proportion has inscribed the name of the ‘City of Destiny’ on the Marathon map of the country with whole hearted support from District Administration, City Police Authorities, GVMC, AP Tourism Department, Sports Authority of AP, Care Hospital and the numerous volunteers.

Vice Adm Karambir Singh, PVSM, AVSM, Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief, ENC, the Chief Guest, presented cash awards to the winners on completion of the Marathon. The winners in various categories were as follows:-