Fourth edition of Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon on January 21

Mumbai, Nov 25 (UNI) The fourth Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon will be held on January 21 and will be flagged off from the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus.

This was announced by organising Committee Chairman Suresh Kalmadi yesterday.

Mr Kalmadi told reporters, this year there will be 30,000 partipants- 2,500 more than last year and the prize money 230,000 dollar.

Already Mumbai Marathon is considered as the richest marathon in Asia.

He said 40 of the world's top 100 athletes are expected to participate in this marathon which will be telecast live on Zee Sports and simultaneously on Doordarshan.

Standard Chartered Bank CEO Neraj Swaroop said Mumbai Marathon has become the largest platform to raise money for charities, raising over Rs 4.5 crore in the 2006 edition and benefiting over 90 non- governmental organisations.

''We remain Asia's largest marathon and are proud to attract some of the world's top international marathon runners,'' he said.

Mr Kalmadi said the registration for SCMM 2007 began on Noember 15 and will close on December 16 or whenever the running places are full, whichever is earlier.

A maximum of 3,000 running places will be offered for the Full Marathon, while 7,000 places for Half Marathon. The Dream Run will accomodate 14,000 participants and 3,000 places will be reserved for the Corporate Challenge. As many as 300 entries will be permitted in the Senior Citizen run while 200 entries will be accepted for the Wheelchair event, taking the total number of participants to about 30,000.

During this marathon, naval bands of the Indian Navy-Western Naval Command play in full gusto.

The race categories for the SCMM 2007 will be as follows: Full Marathon 42.195 km, Half Marathon 21.097 km, Dream Run 6 km, Sr Citizens Run 4.3 km and Wheelchair event 2.5 km.

This year the corporate challange has a sporting twist and category has been christened as Corporate Sporting Challenge which will demand serious effort from those opting for it. In this race, teams of six runners will run a relay race, each runner covering an approximate distance of seven km to finish the Full Marathon.

UNI JM KU PM BST1753