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ShareVadodara: After flagging off the 21 kms mini marathon in the city today, Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi Said the city will get national level indoor and outdoor stadium soon.
More than 30,000 participants including legendary cricketer Kapil Dev, contemporary cricketers Irfan Pathan, Yusuf Pathan and some Bollywood celebrities with 64 foreigners participated in the Marathon, which is aimed to raise fund for Vadodara Traffic Education Trust, a voluntary organisation assisting city police in traffic management.
Considering the presence of high profile dignitaries and celebrities, security was beefed up and 2,000 policemen with senior officials across the city were deployed to ensure smooth running of the Marathon and vehicular traffic, Rakesh Asthana, city police commissioner said.
A notification on banning movement of heavy vehicular traffic on the Marathon route was also issued. Olympian Milkha Singh was also present. There were five different categories and the response was overwhelming.
People had lined up on both sides of the route to greet the participants which included disabled and a 90-year-old man.Tejal Amin, Director of Vadodara Marathon Company, said that the marathon will be an annual feature of the city and funds raised through it will be spent for various projects concerning to the development and infrastructure facilities in the city.
Bakulesh Gupta, an educationist running BRG Group of schools in the city, said that prizes for winners in 21-km category, were sponsored by his group.
Vipul Saharia of Hyderabad won the first prize of Rs1 lakh in the men's category of 21 km and Komesh Vagiya of Gandhinagar won the first prize of Rs1 lakh in the women's category of the 21-km marathon, the organisers of the event said. Union minister for Sports and Youth Welfare MS Gill gave away the prizes to the winners.
