IIM Raipur successfully organized the second edition of its
flagship Marathon event Prayaas 2.0 on 19th November 2017. The event
kicked off from the environs of Marine Drive, Telibandha with more than 2500
registered runners .The theme for the run this year was ‘Beti Bachao,Beti
Padhao’ with the objective to create awareness regarding the importance of
equal rights and opportunities for the girl child.
Bus arrangements were made to pick up participants from all
points of the city to ensure the adherence to the schedule.Kits including
t-shirts and caps were distributed to the registered participants.Ambulance,
health check, route markers and volunteers were all in place apart from water
and glucose before the start of the event and spot registrations continued
smoothly at the multiple registration points.
The chief guests included popular Bollywood actress
Mugdha Godse, widely known for her role in the National award winning movie
Fashion,ace archers Rahul Banerjee ,Commonwealth gold medalist (2010) and his
sister Dola Banerjee, the second woman archer to be honored with
the Arjuna award and Prof. Bharat Bhasker, Director of IIM Raipur. The chief
guests were felicitated at 6.30 am after which the flagship 11 km run was flagged
off amidst a thunderous applause. Twenty minutes later, the 5 km run was also
flagged off,an unprecedented number of 1900 registered participants ran in this
group. This was followed by a special Divyang run conducted this year in 2
categories-one for the visually challenged and the second for other specially
abled category ,both of which saw enthusiastic participation and appreciation
from the crowd and chief guests.
Mr. Pintu Kumar Yadav walked away with the first prize for
men in the 11km event whileMs. Chandravati Raswade won the women’s event. Both
won cash prizes worth INR 50,000 as well as goodies worth INR 5000. 5 km event
winners were Mr.Babkutudu and MsBhuneshwari Nishad for men and women
respectively walking away with prizes of INR 10,000 and goodies worth INR 5000
each. Mr. Balram Singh was declared the winner in the Special Divyang run while
Mr. Tikeshwar was declared the winner in the visually challenged category.Prizes
were also given to the top 6 finishers (men and women) in the 11 km event,
runners up in the 5km event and top 6 finishers in the Divyang run event for total
prize money of INR 2.5 lakhs apart from goodies.
Various dignitaries graced the occasion including Mayor Shri
Pramod Dubey; Shri Om Prakash Choudhary,Collector & DM;Shrimati
Ramshila Sahu,Minister for Women and Child Welfare and Shri Sanjay Alung, IAS
officer.
The event also saw several Cultural performances including dance performance by Columbia Global School, Zumba performances and Folk dance performance.This was followed by enlightening speeches of the dignitaries.The center of attraction, Bollywood star Mugdha Godse was very happy to be a part of IIM Raipur’s Prayaas 2.0 marathon. After the prize distribution, the Director of IIM Raipur, Profesor Bharat Bhaskar congratulated the team for pulling out a successful run. He emphasized on taking more effective steps towards betterment of the girls. The guests were pleased to see the crowd turning up in huge number. They appreciated all the team members, volunteers and participants for making the marathon a grand success. The entire amount raised from this marathon shall be used for supporting the PG Umathe Govt. Girls Higher Secondary School to support them in fulfilling the objective of educating the girl child. The marathon concluded with a message ,”Winning is only half of it, having fun is the other half.”
