Runner dies of heart attack at Vadodara marathon

The seventh edition of the Vadodara International Marathon held here today saw a record 91,908 runners participating but was marred by an unfortunate incident with a runner dying of a heart attack during the race.
Organisers said Bharat Samani (62) died while taking part in the 21 kilometre half-marathon. Samani died near the Taj Gateway hotel on Productivity Road with organisers saying that a group of three doctors who were running close to Samani spotted him lying on the road in distress.
These doctors called up an ambulance service which rushed Samani to a private hospital nearby where he was declared dead on arrival, the marathon organisers said.

They added that Samani, a resident of Rajkot, had run marathons earlier and had participated in the ones hosted at Ahmedabad and Rajkot. His body was handed over to his family, the organisers informed.
The event was earlier flagged off from the Navlakhi ground here by Chief Minister Vijay Rupani who expressed happiness at an increaaing number of cities in Gujarat hosting marathons.