Over 40,000 children to run in Salwan Marathon on Sunday

Over 40,000 children, including 2500 visually impaired kids and differently-abled children, from over 800 schools across India will take part in the 21st edition of Salwan Marathon here on Sunday.

The run will take place at the Army Equestrian Centre. The run this year has seen an increase of over 40 per cent in registrations from students from rural areas over last year.

Celebrated Indian athletes Shiva Thapa, Manpreet Kaur and Khushbir Kaur will be seen at the run as well as volunteers, cheering for the runners and promoting and emphasising upon the tenets of Salwan Marathon.

Salwan Marathon spokesman Samrata Diwan said: "Seeing the response from the children from all over the country is really heartening for us. It gives us the belief that the Salwan Marathon has been able to strike the right chord of allowing children a platform to express themselves and inculcate the educational values of sport among them.

"Our biggest challenge is to ensure the safety and security of each and every child and have a fair and clean race, and we are fully geared up for that."

As part of the initiative to ensure an even playing field for all participants, the organisers have put in place stringent mechanisms to root out any possibility of doping and fudging by participating school children.

The organisers have roped in their long-time partner SRL Ltd. to conduct dope and age verification tests for the top 20 winners in each category.

Along with this, multiple cameras and GPS tracking systems are being put in place to track the distance, location and time taken to run the course including checking if the runner has completed the entire route.

--IANS

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