Visakhapatnam: Vizag Navy Marathon draws over 18,000 runners

A large number of volunteers also line up very early in the morning to cheer the runners all along the scenic beach route

The seventh edition of the Limca Sportz Vizag Navy Marathon held at the RK Beach Road on Sunday witnessed an overwhelming participation of 18,172 runners who registered for the event.

In addition to the runners, who included children, youth, senior citizens, naval personnel and foreigners, from all over India and abroad, who participated in various categories of the marathon, a large number of volunteers also lined up very early in the morning to cheer the runners all along the scenic beach route.

In all, 432 runners participated in the full marathon, which was flagged off by the Race Director Muralidhar Nannapaneni. The half marathon, which was jointly flagged off by Cmde Naresh Warikoo, Commanding Officer INS Kalinga, and Milind Soman, saw participation of 1,344 runners. The 10 km-run had 3,439 runners and was flagged off by Vice Admiral Sreekumar Nair, DGNP, Vizag.

The 5 km run recorded the largest participation of 12,959 runners and was flagged off jointly by Rear Adm Sandeep Pradhan CSO(P&A), Eastern Naval Command, and Adivi Shesh, cine actor.

The prize distribution ceremony was attended by the runners and spectators on the beach. Minister for Industries and IT Gudivada Amarnath was the chief guest for the ceremony. He was received by Vice Admiral Sanjay Vatsayan, Chief of Staff, Eastern Naval Command.

In the women’s category of the full and half marathon races, Susan Chebet and Vadde Navya were the winners respectively. In the men’s category, Vishal Abhishek Duriya and Ramavath Ramesh Chandra emerged as winners in the full and half marathons respectively. In the 10 KM race, V. Jyothi stood as the winner in the women’s category, while Hastiram Jharwal was the winner in men’s category.

The Indian Navy thanked the people of Visakhapatnam, the district administration, the police, participants, volunteers, guests and sponsors for the successful conduct of the event.