About 40,000 participants took part in the Drive Safe Marathon - Run for Road Safety - 2019’ which was flagged off by Chief Minister Manohar Lal in Jagadhri of district Yamunanagar on Friday.

“Despite dense fog and cold weather conditions, the marathon saw an overwhelming response from all walks of life. Scores of sports person, students of school and colleges, members of various organizations and people of the district ran together to set a new record,” said an official spokesman.

He said, “Around 40,000 participants took part in the Marathon which was organized in the category of 5, 11, 21 and 42 kilometers spreading message across not only to people of Yamunanagar but also to the country and world to follow the traffic rules  while driving so as to ensure safety of ourselves and also of others.”

Buoyed with the massive turnout in the marathon organized on the theme of safety of citizens and to make the people aware about traffic rules, Chief Minister Manohar Lal said that Haryana and its people have always played a vital role in resolving various issues in the society and the country.

Earlier also, marathons have been organized in different districts of the state on various important issues like drugs, national unity etc and the positive impact of this is clearly visible in the society, he said adding that with the massive presence of people in the today’s event, he is quite sure that the theme with which marathon has been organized here would definitely be achieved.

While hailing the contribution of Haryanvis in different fields, he said that people of the state have always be in the forefront in sports, agriculture, education, engineering, trade etc but in the last few years, they have  gain even more momentum. Besides, people of the state are giving their vital contribution in the development of the society and country.

He also expressed concern on the increasing number of causalities in the road accidents and said keeping in the view the sensitivity of the situation, the State Government decided to organize Drive Safe Marathon - Run for Road Safety.

While in 21 kms Marathon, Rinu Kumar, Rajinder Nath and Amarpreet Singh were declared winners in the men’s category, Kairen of Kenya, Mamta of Ambala and Pratibha of Yamunangar declared winners in the women’s category.

Similarly, in the 42 kms Marathon, Toy Babekar of Ethiopia, Jitender and Ankit Kumar of Uttar Pradesh were declared winners in the men’s category and Divyanka of Yamunangar, Lakshmi of Lukhnow and Amandeep Kaur of Ambala declared winners in the women’s category. The winners were honoured by  presenting them with a cheque of Rs 50,000, Rs 30,000 and Rs 20,000 respectively and Rs 25,000, Rs 15,000 and Rs 10,000 respectively.