KOCHI: The inaugural edition of the Kochi Navy Marathon held on Sunday by the Southern Naval Command has received good response with nearly 2,000 persons from different age groups taking part in the event. The marathon was held as part of the Navy Week celebrations. The run was conducted for different age groups under three categories; namely the Venduruthy Run (21.1 km), the Dronacharya Run (10 km) and the Garuda Run (5 km). The Venduruthy and Dronacharya runs were so planned for them to partly pass through the Naval Base. The main event, the Venduruthy Run, was flagged off by Vice Admiral A.R. Karve, AVSM, Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Southern Naval Command along with athlete P.T. Usha.
Usha, also made a symbolic participation by running a short distance along with the runners of the Dronacharya run. Speaking on the occasion, Admiral Karve brought out the fact that running is a simple, inexpensive and ‘easily accessible-to-all’ physical activity. Jairesh Yadav, seaman of Indian Navy and sepoy Malkeet Singh, won the 21.1 km and 10 km runs in the male category with timings of 01:23:52 hours and 34:40 min respectively, while, in the female category, Ms Merina Mathew and Ms Priya Gangadharan won these events with timings of 01:54:44 hrs and 48:03 min respectively. The Garuda Run was won by Sardar Singh, senior secondary recruit (SSR) of Navy and Ms Ishika Barak in the male and female categories respectively. All finishers were awarded with medals, in addition to special prizes for the top three in each age group and category.
