Indiabulls Home Loans, Cigna TTK, Radio City join hands with Vasai Virar Mayor’s Marathon

Indiabulls Home Loans, Cigna TTK, Radio City join hands with Vasai Virar Mayor’s Marathon, country’s richest event for Indian athletes

Country’s top athletes to lead in excess of 15,000 participants on December 11

by Suman Gupta

Mumbai, September 20: The Vasai Virar Mayor’s Marathon, India’s richest National level running event for Indian professional and amateur athletes, has received a tremendous boost after joining hands with some of the largest corporate entities in the country, and the 6^th edition of the event, to be run on December 11, 2016, will be much bigger and better, making this event the pride of the National running calendar.

From left to right:  Gagan Banga, Vice Chairrman & MD Indiabulls Housing Finance Ltd, representing the title sponsors Indiabulls Home Loans, Abraham Thomas, CEO Radio City, Smt. Pravina Thakur, the first Woman Mayor of the Vasai Virar City Municipal Corporatio and Sandeep Patel, CEO & MD, Cigna TTK Health Insurance at a press conference to announce the launch of the 6^th Vasai-Virar Mayor’s Marathon .

This was announced by Smt. Pravina Thakur the first Woman Mayor of the Vasai Virar City Municipal Corporation. “We are happy to inform media persons that Indiabulls Home Loans is the title sponsor of this year’s edition, while Cigna TTK Health Insurance and Radio City, are the Associate Sponsors.”

“Like in the previous editions, we are will once again make sure to provide the best possible facilities for the athletes to ensure a better race. Last year over 15,000 participated in all categories and this year we hope to target over 18,000 runners. The event also offers a total prize fund of Rs 35 lakhs across all categories, with the winners of the men’s full marathon standing to gain Rs 2.5 lakhs and the men and women winners of the half marathon taking home Rs 1.25 lakhs each,” she further mentioned.

Also present on the occasion were Gagan Banga, Vice Chairrman & MD Indiabulls Housing Finance Ltd, representing the title sponsors Indiabulls Home Loans, Sandeep Patel, CEO & MD Cigna TTK Health Insurance and Abraham Thomas, CEO Radio City. The others present included Shri Kshitij Thakur, MLA, Shri Umesh Naik, Deputy Mayor of the Corporation and Shri Satish Lokhande (IAS), Municipal Commissioner, along with former Mayor Narayan Mankar.

The Mayor also acknowledged the continued support of New Viva College, Virar, the Venue Partner and TabCab, the Vehicle Partner.

Speaking on the occasion, Banga mentioned that he is a marathon runner and is happy that Indiabulls is associated with the Vasai-Virar Marathon. “This association with the Vasai Virar Mayor’s Marathon strikes a few chords personally. I have participated in 15 marathons and I understand the importance of running and know just how fulfilling the experience can be for one. I will certainly be participating here in December. Besides supporting the event, Indiabulls Home Loans will also look to identify deserving young athletes, and further help them pursue the sport more seriously. We will support 2-3 under- privileged youngsters who could become top marathons runners in the country.”

Organised by the Vasai-Virar City Municipal Corporation and the Vasai Taluka Kala Krida Vikas Mandal and promoted by Aryanz Sports PR &Events, the Marathon and invites athletes from all over the state as well as other parts of the country to come and participate in the Open Full Marathon for men and women and the Open Half Marathon for men and women.

Throwing light on their association with the event, Sandeep Patel, CEO & MD, Cigna TTK Health Insurance said, “We are glad to be associated with the Vasai Virar Mayor’s Marathon 2016. At Cigna TTK it is our mission to improve the health, wellbeing and sense of security of our customers. Running helps us live a healthy lifestyle and we are sure our runners will perform very well. We wish them great luck.”

Meanwhile, Radio City 91.1FM will daily feature a programme which will commence from September 21.

“With the complete support of the Vasai Virar City Municipal Corporation, this event, which was birthed in 2011 at the State level, has grown into the country’s largest National level running event. With the Corporation’s support and that of the sponsors and partners, we are committed to making the event bigger and better with every edition,” said Bruno Goveas, Partner Aryanz Sports PR & Events.

The leading male professional long distance runners from the country, who are expected to participate includes, Deep Chand, Lyngkhoi Bining, Ram Singh Yadav, Elam Singh, Neeraj Pal Singh, Kheta Ram, Sanvroo Yadav, Nitender Singh Rawat, G Lakshmanan, Rahul Pal, B C Tilak, Soji Mathew and a host of others. Among women athletes, names like Kavita Raut, Sudha Singh, Lalita Babbar, Monika Athare, Monika Raut, Rohini Raut and Priyanka Singh Patel have been regular entrants.

They will be joined by thousands of serious, amateur participants from Mumbai, Thane, Navi Mumbai as well as the other districts and states in the country. The Vasai Virar City Municipal Corporation also provides free accommodation and meals, besides local transport, to all outstation athletes.

In order to encourage the amateur runner, the event offers attractive prize money in four age categories other than the elite category, besides a separate prize fund for participants from the Vasai Virar Taluka.

To encourage and introduce more youngsters from Palghar District to the benefits of running, it has been decided this year to extend participation in the boys’ under-18 11KM run and the girls’ under-18 7KM run to the entire Palghar District. This will also help unearth new talent like Harshad Mhatre, who was one among six athletes from the country, selected by SAI and being groomed for the 2020 Olympics. Mhatre was inspired to train seriously in athletics after finishing 2^nd in the boys’ under-13 race held by the Kala KridaVikas Mandal in 2007. Mhatre has also participated in the Vasai Virar Mayor’s Marathon, finishing first in the Half Marathon among Vasai Taluka participants in 2013.