Sports Reporter

 

RAJAN Yadav and Neeta Rane won the 21 kms Open event for men and women respectively of the Tiger Run Marathon that was organised by City’s Police Department on Saturday. Police Department’s maiden running event was brainchild of Dr Ravinder Singal, Commissioner of Police, Nagpur City, himself an endurance athlete. Rajan won the gold medal with a timing of one hour and seven minutes. Dheeraj Yadav finished second taking one hour, 18 minutes and 7 seconds.

 

He was followed by Leela Ram Bawne who took an hour, 18 mins and 26 secs. In the women’s open category, Neeta carved out a timing of one hour, 17 mins and 56 secs. Prajakta Godbole and Tejaswini Lambat took the second an hird spots respectively with 1 hr 19 min 18 secs and 1 hr 22 min 6 secs. In the 45+ age group for men, Goverdhan Meena, Bhaskar Bawne and Sunil Kodam finished in the top three in that order. In the women’s section, Pallavi Moon, Vandana Singh and Anjali Tiwari made it to the podium ending first, second and third respectively. Apart from these 21 kms marathon in four categories, there were competitive 10 kms runs and 5kms and 3 kms fun races, also for both sexes. All the participants were awarded medals.

 

The marathon was held with messages of curbing cyber crime and drug menace; educating masses on following traffic rules and women safety. The main 21 kms main event was flagged-off by dignitaries at 6 am at the Shivaji Stadium, Police Headquarters in Police Like Takli. Over 14,000 fitness enthusiasts and competitive athletes, who came from Jaipur, Kolkata, Allahabad, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra’s Kolhapur, Mumbai, Pune, Buldhana, Sangli, Aurangabad apart from Nagpur, took part in the event. At the outset, Dr Singal informed the participants about the main objectives behind holding the event. MP Shyam Barve, Municipal Commissioner Dr Abhijeet Choudhary, Vinita Singal, NIT’s Meena, Dr Dilip Bhujbal Patil, IG Sandip Patil and others graced the occasion. Under the able leadership of Dr Singal a team comprising Nisar Tamboli, Lohit Matani, Archit Chandak, Niketan Kadam, Rahul Maknikar, Shweta Khedkar, Rahul Madne, Ashwini Patil, PRO team, traffic department and all inspectors worked hard to ensure the event was a huge success.