Jairesh Yadav wins Kochi Navy Marathon

KOCHI: People from all walks of life gathered at KV Port Trust Ground on Sunday morning to be part of the first ever marathon conducted by the Southern Naval Command in Kochi. Over 2000 Kochiites took part in the inaugural Kochi Navy Marathon, which was flagged off by Olympian PT Usha and Vice Admiral AR Karve, Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief of Southern Naval Command.
The event was held in different age groups under three categories, Venduruthy Run (21.1 km), Dronacharya Run (10 km) and Garuda Run (5 km). To warm up the runners, Zumba dance was performed before Dronacharya Run started. While the participants ran through the picturesque landscape of West Kochi and Naval Base.
Admiral Karve said, “running is a simple, inexpensive and ‘easily accessible-to-all’ physical activity.” He also events like Kochi Navy marathon are great unifiers since it bring people from all strata of society together in challenging their physical abilities.
While Usha said that overwhelming participation by the public in marathons is an encouraging sign as running keeps the entire body fit. The Olympian ran along with runners of the Dronacharya Run for a short distance as a mark of symbolic participation.
Jairesh Yadav, Seaman 1st class (Sea I) of the Indian Navy and Sepoy Malkeet Singh, won the 21.1 km and 10 km runs in the male category respectively. While, Merina Mathew and Priya Gangadharan won the same events respectively. The Garuda Run was won by Sardar Singh, Senior Secondary Recruit (SSR) of the Indian Navy and Ishika Barak in the male and female categories respectively.