COIMBATORE: The marathon organised by The New Indian Express against child labour on Sunday, saw people from every walks of life participating. The event was flagged off by former Indian cricketer V V S Laxman and Municipal Administration Minister S P Velumani. The dignitaries present on the occasion included District Collector T N Hariharan, Coimbatore Corporation Commissioner K Vijayakarthikeyan, Deputy Commissioner P Gandhimathi and Coimbatore South MLA K Arjunan.
There were four events - 10 km, 5 km, 3 km and 1 km, which began from the from the Police Recruitment School (PRS) grounds here. Among the 5,000 participants was 90-year-old A Devaraj, president and director of Bharathi Institute of Rural and Tribal Development. And Devaraj was not the only elder to participate.
Another participant who attracted attention was a differently-abled schoolgirl, P Sridharshini, who ran the 3-km event. Sridharshini, completed the run and celebrated it with her father.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Sujit Kumar and trainee Collector D Sneha were among the 10-km runners.
Over 1,000 men and women participated in the 10-km marathon. In the men’s category in this event, Tirtha Kumarpun came first with a timing of 30.32 minutes. Ameet Parmar, who came second, missed the first place by just a second. Praveen, from Mumbai, who completed the event in 31.08 minutes, was placed third.