All India Ambedkar Marathon tomorrow in Lucknow

Lucknow, Apr 13 (UNI) The first edition of over Rupees five lakh prize money Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar All India marathon and open cross country race will be held here tomorrow under the aegis of Uttar Pradesh Sports Directorate.

The 42.195 km marathon for men and women and five km cross contry for boys and girls will start from Parivartan Chowk and will culminate at B R Ambedkar stadium after going through various routes in the city.

The winners in both categories would get Rs 1.01 lakh as prize money while second and third place finishers will take home Rs 50,000 and Rs 25,000 respectively. Cross country winners will be awarded Rs 10,000 each, runners up and third place holders will be richer by Rs 5,000 and Rs 3,000 respectively.

In the marathon, a number of athletes from Services and Railways are expected to participate and till now 265 men and 16 women for marathon and over one thousnad boys and 165 girls have registered for the cross country race. Prominent runners like Indresh Dheeraj, Shanti Devi and Neellamma had already got their chest numbers.

Meanwhile, Joint Secretary of Athletics Federation of India (AFI) Pradeep Kumar said some participants for the invitational international marathons in Macau in May and June next will be selected from amongst those participating in this marathon.

This marathon will also be included in the AFI national calendar from this year.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav would present the prizes to the winners and State Sports Minister R K Chowdhary would also be present at the closing function.

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