Elite athletes gear up for Kolkata Marathon

THE COUNTRY'S ELITE ATHLETES, including the likes of Sindhu Yadav, Rashmi Gurumule, Girish Tiwari, Md Yunus, B. Prakash, B. Patel and Bahadur Singh Dhoumi, will run in the Kolkata Marathon on Sunday to try and qualify for the Rio Olympics scheduled later this year.

The total prize purse for the marathon this year is Rs.16 lakh and over 15,000 contestants are expected to take part in it.

A catchy, foot-tapping anthem for the marathon was launched on Friday, celebrating the joyous spirit of Kolkata. Celebrities like June Maliah, Payel Sarkar, Nirmal Chettri, Gurbux Singh and Noomi Mehta also graced the occasion with their presence and pledged to truly ‘Run For Kolkata’. 

This year, amateur runners will get a chance to run alongside 50 elite athletes of the country. 

Ultra marathoners Kavin Kondabathini, Limca Record holders Sangeeta and Sunil Shetty from Mumbai are also participating for this edition.

Apart from this there will be participation from senior citizens, blade runners, youngsters, corporate teams and first time runners.

The day will witness four events - the full marathon (42.19 km), the half marathon (21.095 km), the 'Corporate and Open run' (10 km) and the 'Fun Run' (5 km).