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10,000 take part in 7 Hills Marathon in temple town in Tirupati

Run aimed at spreading message of healthy living.

Tirupati: The citizens of the temple town woke up to a different experience on Sunday with scores of enthusiasts converging at the Tarakarama Stadium in the SV University for a 7 Hills Marathon run. Organised by the Disease Eradication through Education and Prevention (DEEP), the marathon was flagged off by Superintendent of Police R. Jayalakshmi and Tirupati MLA M. Suguna at 6 am from the stadium.

Scores of schoolchildren, professionals and employees of the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) participated in the run, conducted for the first time.
Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu who was scheduled to attend the event, cancelled his tour and on his behalf home minister N. China Rajappa, irrigation minister Devineni Umamaheswar Rao and municipal administration minister P. Narayana were present.

The run was organised in three categories - 21 kilometre, 10 kilometre and 5K and 3K. While the run for all the four categories began from the Tarakarama Stadium and ended there, the route for the 21K category was circuitous.

The 21K run wound its way through streets of Tirupati, headed along the SV Zoo before culminating at the Stadium. Schoolchildren dressed in their respective school uniforms added colour to the run when they lined up at several important junctions to cheer the runners. However, ordinary citizens were restricted from participating in the run by the organisers.Many were also not able to view the run from the sidelines.

The youth, meanwhile, enjoyed the event to the hilt. Flash mobs were organised as part of the run, and the dances by them were a new experience to the citizens. Also, live musical programmes were organised where several youth crooned for latest chart busters.

The participants also threw a few among them into the air to cheer them up.
The organisers had arranged water and biscuits all along the marathon route for the runners along with first aid.

In total six winners- three male and three female from 21000 and 10000 categories respectively were awarded with citations by the organisers. Despite, about 7,000 registered their names, more than 10,000 participated in the event enthusiastically.

District in-charge minister B. Gopalakrishna Reddy, TTD JEO P. Bhaskar, MLAs Amarnath Reddy, T. Aditya, MLC G. Srinivasulu, collector Siddharth Jain, joint collector Ramasubbareddy, SAAP chairman P.R. Mohan, TTD chairman Ch. Krishnamurthy and founder of Sudharani Foundation Dr Sudharani were present.

( Source : Deccan Chronicle. )
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