Inspired by the success of their debut marathon, hosted exclusively for women last year, Kovaipudur Runners Club in association with Orchids, a gated community with Rakindo, today hosted a 42 km Marathon for the first time in the city.

Vinodh Kumar of Genesis Sports Foundation finished first clocking 2:49:40 and Peter from Kenya, a student came second in 2:54:53. D Siva also from Genesis Sports Foundation finished third in the marathon that was run for a cause — to create a Green Kovaipudur, a suburb of the city.

About 1,300 runners from different walks of life including students, homemakers, professionals and senior citizens from across
the country, participated in different categories of the marathon such as 5-km, 10-km, 21-km run and 42-km run.

The youngest participant was a eight-year old boy, while an 88-year old man was the oldest. Foreign nationals from Kenya also participated in the full and half marathon and won prizes in the men’s category.

Since the aim of this marathon is to improve the green cover, all runners were given a sapling and were advised to ensure that they grew a tree.

“Our city has hosted marathons of various capacities for several social causes in the past. This is the first time that a 42-km marathon has beeb hosted in our city,” said C Rajasekhar, one of the organisers of the Marathon.

P. Nagesh from Genesis Sports Foundation completed 21 Kms in 1:13:04 and Michael Diwott from Kenya came second in 1:16:27 and in women category S Padmavathi clocked 1:35:00 to win the race.

A total of Rs.1.80 lakh cash prizes were given to the winners.