Numaligarh Marathon 2019 held

A Correspondent

Numaligarh: With over 3200 participants, the 4th edition of Numaligarh Marathon 2019, the flagship sporting event of Numaligarh Refinery Limited (NRL) got underway on Sunday at Numaligarh Township. Espousing the concept of 'Run to keep fit' to spread awareness on health and fitness, the Marathon saw overwhelming response from participants from the neighbourhood of the Refinery, NRL employees and their families, marathoners and fitness enthusiasts from across the State, country and abroad as well. Drawing magnanimous response from international runners every year, this edition of Numaligarh Marathon saw the highest participation from Kenya.

The competition was held in three categories- 21.1 km. (Half Marathon), 10 km. (Endurance Run) and 5 km. (Dream Run) amongst men and women. Beating the morning chill, the enthusiastic participants thronged the two start-off points –viz. DPS Playground, NRL Township (for 21.1 km and 10 km) and Numaligarh Refinery Marketing Terminal Main Gate(for 5 km.) with exuberant energies. The runs for the different categories were flagged off by MD NRL Mr. S. K Barua, Director (Technical) NRL Mr. B.J Phukan, Director (Finance) NRL Mr. Indranil Mittra alongwith the invited guests from the aforesaid three locations.

Professional International Footballer and Arjuna Awardee Oinam Bembem Devi, upcoming National Athlete Ambrika Narzary, Mr. Universe and Mr. World 2018 Golap Rabha and Mr. Assam Kushal Changmai graced the event and spurred the need for fitness and good health during the concluding function, which was held at DPS Numaligarh Playground. Oinam Devi while congratulating NRL for holding such a mass sporting event, expressed her contentment in seeing so many people gathering at twilight to participate in a sports event. She encouraged NRL to continue its efforts in promoting and developing sportsperson from the region. Golap Rabha motivated the gathering with his encouraging words and conveyed the message that a healthy mind dwells in a healthy body and he believed that a healthy body is a promoter of positivity in the society. He urged people to take up running as a sport and a hobby and live a healthy life.

Prizes were distributed to the winners in the various categories during the concluding function in presence of the guests and NRL Directors. MD NRL S. K Barua shared his delight on the huge turnout in the event and reiterated his dream to make Numaligarh Marathon into a full marathon in the near future. He even mentioned about increasing the amount of the prize money in the next editions owing the huge support and popularity of the event-locally as well as internationally. In a bid towards energy conservation, Barua shared his vision of promoting cycling alongside the Marathon by replacing the motorbikes with cyclists.

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