Visakhapatnam: The drizzle was persistent, but it could not deter Vizagites from showing up in large numbers to participate, and cheer others running in the first-ever festive night marathon, held here on Saturday.
There were as many as 7,500 people from all age groups who had registered to run, including an 80-year-old woman, Mrutyamalaxmi, who was felicitated at the event.
Deepak Kumar from Vizag and Srinu from B. Vizianagram clinched the first positions in the 21.1k and 10k runs respectively.
Isaac, a runner from Kenya, who came second in the 21.1 run, said, “We run in most of the marathons being conducted in India as the certificates help us in our careers, but this was the first time we participated in a night marathon. We last ran in the one held at Amaravati.”
Runners from Ethiopia and youngsters from USA gave tough competition to the local participants. Many employees belonging to various IT companies also took part.
Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, who was greeted with a lot of cheers from the young participants, flagged off the 5k run. The run included a half-marathon, besides the 10k, 5k and 3k runs.
The atmosphere was carnivalesque: participants ran, while coloured lights twinkled on Beach Road, music bands performed, artistes danced along the routes and popular numbers boomed from loudspeakers all through the way.
Cultural programmes, like the Dhimsa dance of Araku, Kommu dance, Tappedagullu, Puliveshalu, Koya dance, Katthi Saamu, Punjabi dhol and Sannai, were performed at 24 spots along the course from Kalimatha temple to GITAM.
A rock band belted out some evergreen numbers in Hindi and Telugu while the first aid centres provided immediate service to participants in need.
