Ocean of orange!

The GMC Balayogi Stadium was like an ocean of orange as the sixth edition of the Airtel Hyderabad Marathon culminated at the venue on Sunday. Be it a running enthusiast, a fitness freak, a health conscious corporate employee or simply someone looking for a wellness boost in the morning the participation recorded an all-time high with upto 16,000 taking to the streets of Hyderabad.

While runners did their thing, it was the spirit of the people that shined through with hundreds of citizens coming out to cheer the participants. In addition, the support from volunteers and paramedics further boosted the runners.

The Full Marathon was flagged off by Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic), Jitender at 4.30 am in which upto 1,000 runners displayed their grit and determination. The Half Marathon was flagged off an hour later by Commissioner of GHMC, B Janardhan Reddy in which 5,000 runners took part.

Over 50 music bands and large scale entertainment kept the runners’ spirit in the city's largest community sporting event, which was organised by the Hyderabad Runners Society along with Airtel. Elite athletes received prizes from CEO of Bharti Airtel Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, Venkatesh Vijayraghavan.

Jyoti records best time
In the Full Marathon, Jyoti Gawate beat her last year’s time by finishing first in the women’s category in 2 hours 59 minutes and nine seconds as opposed to last year’s 3 hours and five minutes. Similarly, Navya Y beat last year’s time in the 10K women’s category and finished the race in 40 minutes 27 seconds as opposed to last year’s 42 minutes.

Amandeep won the Half Marathon in 1 hour 31 minutes and 52 seconds. In the men’s category, last year’s champion, Titus K was dethroned by Mesfin B who won the race in 2 hours 32 minutes and 16 seconds. Pankaj Kumar won the Half Marathon in 1 hour 10 minutes and 25 seconds and Kuldeep won the 10K Run in 32 minutes 33 seconds.