Around 3000 take part in first Tata Steel-BSL Run-a-thon

Surjit kumar Dhal, Narendrapur, Feb 4: The first edition of the Tata Steel BSL Run-a-thon, organised today near the main gate of  Tata Steel BSL (formerly Bhushan Steel Limited) plant at Narendrapur in Dhenkanal district in Odisha, was a grand success with participation of around 3000 running enthusiasts from across the state on Sunday.

Samshad Ara Begum and Harendra Chauhan  won the 10km run and Md. Tarikuddin and Suhana Parmin the 5km run in their categories.

As many as twenty winner won cash awards to the tune of Rs 3 lakh.

The 10 km run, only professional run of the region organised by the steel major, was flagged off at 0600 hrs which was followed by 5km run at 0645 hrs.

Among the dignitaries present on the occasion were Pradipta Mohanty, District Sports Officer, Dhenkanal, Kalpana Dash, first Odia Everest climber, Pankaj Gautam, CEO, JSPL, Angul, Ramesh Pai, Plant Head, GMR Kamalanga Energy, Dhenkanal,, Y Pattanaik, Plant Head, Nava Bharat Ventures, Dhenkanal, Akashya Kumar Saxena, ED Tata Steel BSL, Manikanata Naik, Chief Corporate Services Tata Steel BSL, along with noted actors Sabyasachi Mishra and Archita Sahoo and many people from the adjoining industries.

Organised with an aim to promote fitness, god health and a sportive spirit in the region, therun covered a distance of 10km starting from the plant gate and moving on the service road by the side of the NH-55  and returning by the same route, finally terminating at the origin.

This was followed by the 5km run for girls and boys between 12 to 16 years of age.Twenty winners, 5 from each of the categories, were awarded cash prize worth Rs 3 lakh, certificates and trophies.

To ensure the safety of all runners, Tata Steel BSL organised ambulances and water counters along the route.

The local administration and police personnel played a significant role in traffic management. State-of-the-art technology consisting of timing mats and its control units, radio frequency identification (RFID) chips, split timing mats on route, tracking camera, wi-fi network on route as per international standards were used to ensure a world standard conduct of the run-a-thon.