Walk & run contests pull crowds in Siliguri

(From Top) Participants in the walkathon in Siliguri on Monday; Ministers Rabindranath Ghosh, Gautam Deb and Aroop Biswas stand with flags to launch the road race; runners start from the City Centre. Pictures by Passang Yolmo 

TT, Siliguri: Around 2,000 men and women participated in the first road race and walkathon organised by the Siliguri metropolitan police in Siliguri on Monday.

Among those who ran the 10km stretch or took a brisk walk of 4km include participants from other districts and even from some other states of the country.

On Monday morning, the participants braved the cold and the dense fog cover, to arrive at the City Centre in Uttarayon, from where state ministers Aroop Biswas, Gautam Deb and Rabindranath Ghosh, along with senior police officers, flagged-off the events.

Morning walkers and others cheered the runners while standing beside the road when they moved through NH31 and Hill Cart Road.

Subhankar Ghosh from Calcutta became the first to finish the race in 30.13 minutes. Prahlad Singh and Hajung Bhutia came second and third, respectively.

In the female category, Jhuma Khatun won the first place with finishing the race in 30.13 minutes while Poonam Singh and Sikha Mondal secured the second and third position, respectively.

Both Ghosh and Khatun were awarded Rs 50,000 each along with trophies and other prizes, sources said.

The second and third position winners were awarded Rs 25,000 and Rs 15,000 each, respectively, in both male and female category.

In walkathon, that conducted inside the Uttarayon, several elderly people were seen participating with fervour.

Tiken Mondal and Alpana Chowdhury won the event in male and female category.

Senior police officers said the response has made them plan the walkathon in a bigger manner next year.

"It was a good initiative taken by the police. The events were a success, given the overwhelming response of participants," said Aroop Biswas, the state minister for PWD, youth affairs and sports.

Sunil Kumar Choudhary, the commissioner of Siliguri metropolitan police, said: "We have organised the events for the first time as part of the traffic awareness campaign taken up by the state. It was good to see that runners from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and some other states, along with people from other districts of Bengal, came forward and participated. Next year, we plan to host it in a bigger manner."

The participants of both road race and walkathon sounded enthusiastic.

"This is for the first time that I participated in a walkathon. It was a nice experience to see so many people competing together," said Debarati Aich Sarkar, a resident of Pradhannagar in Siliguri.

Rajesh Sharma, a local resident, said: "Such sports events largely help the police in building confidence among the residents."