Kolkata: With less than four days to go for Kolkata to experience the joy of a fantastic new sport, the city is getting ready to proudly host a brand new distance running event, the Tata Steel Kolkata 25K. Preparations are on in full swing and the run will be flagged off on Sunday, December 28 from the iconic Red Road. Forgetting distinctions of any kind such as caste, colour, sex, language and religion, the City of Joy will come together as one to make history at India’s first accredited 25 km Distance Running event.
As a test of fitness and endurance - both physical and emotional – the TSK 25K will focus on Indian running talent, giving professional and amateur men and women from Kolkata and around the country a proven platform to showcase their talent. Registrations for the event are on in full swing across the five categories that include the 25K (elite and amateurs), Open 10K (amateurs), Ananda Run (6 km), Sr. Citizens’ Run (4 km), and Champions with Disability (4 km).
At a Meet and Greet in the city today, Procam International, promoters of the event, focused on the elite line of athletes participating in the run, the integral charity aspect, information on the 25K distance from Race Director Hugh Jones’ point of view, and announced the ‘Mirchi Get Active Health & Expo’ details at The Oberoi Grand, the Official Hospitality Partner.
Present at the occasion were Sunil Bhaskaran, Vice President, Corporate Services, Tata Steel, Hugh Jones, Race Director, Nikhel Morris – VP Resource Mobilization – Responsenet; Geeta Venkadakrishnan, Director, Hope Foundation, Sayom Deb Mukherjee, Indian Institute of Cerebral Palsy (IICP) along with Vivek Singh, Jt. MD. Procam International.
Sunil Bhaskaran, Vice President, Corporate Services, Tata Steel said, “We are privilege to be a part of Tata Steel Kolkata 25k. Procam International has managed to connect Sports and Charity and put them together on one large platform. Like last year, we will be supporting Tata Medical Centre. We believe, like the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon, TSK 25K will receive phenomenal response from the city of Kolkata.”
Fiercely competitive field to battle it out at TSK25K: The INR 21,54, 000 will see in action over 30 leading Indian athletes in the mens and womens category. Leading the fray in women category will be Sudha Singh, Asian Games Gold Medallist 2010 and SCMM 2014 Half Marathon Winner. Lalita Babbar from Central Railway is a three time winner of the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon and Delhi half marathon and recently won the Federation Cup Senior National Athletics Championships.
Kavita Raut, India’s leading long-distance runner who holds the current Indian National record for 10 km road running with a timing of 34:32 as well as the current Indian National record in the half marathon with a timing of 1:12:50.
The men’s category will be dominated by half marathon specialist from Kerela Soji Mathew and 10,000m gold medallist in the All India Inter-university championship, Kheta Ram, ADHM 2013 runner up and 10000 mtrs National Games winner and upcoming talent Sanvroo Yadav.
Hugh Jones: London Marathon winner Hugh Jones, Secretary of the Association of International Marathons & Road Races (AIMS) and an internationally known former athlete will be the event’s Race Director.
Commenting on the distance Jones, said, “25k is an interesting distance and it’s a stepping stone to running full marathon. We have seen India embrace running and we are sure we will receive the same response in Kolkata. I think this race has the potential to go the distance and compete with Berlin which is the single well-known distance in the world.”
Jones, who also measures routes for the Olympics, has set guidelines, measured the TSK 25K route and finalized it together with the Athletics Federation of India, the West Bengal Athletic Association and Kolkata Traffic Police.
