It is the day when Mumbaikars will witness ‘The Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon’, thus putting Mumbai on the international sporting map as one of the must visit marathon destination in the world.
A maximum of 3000 running places are on offer for the Full Marathon, while 8000 places will be available for the Half Marathon. The Dream Run will accommodate 14,000 participants and 3000 places are reserved for the Corporate Challenge. 2500 entries will be permitted in the Senior Citizens' Run, while 300 entries will be accepted for the Wheelchair Event, making the total number of participants around 30,000.
"We are very pleased to be soon celebrating five years of the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon. This is a remarkable achievement for all the people of Mumbai whose participation, support and contribution in a myriad of ways make the marathon what it is today," said Neeraj Swaroop, CEO - Standard Chartered Bank
"The charity aspect of the marathon continues to be a humbling source of pride for us. Your generosity makes the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon the largest platform for raising funds for charity. Over 7.94 crore was raised in the 2007 edition benefiting over 144 NGOs.
"We are also proud to have launched an environmental initiative called 'Race for a living planet' as part of our four marathons relay, the Greatest Race on Earth. The initiative encourages people to select and undertake up to eight pledges to save the planet. There is an additional USD1 million to be won by countries with the most number of pledges per capita. Pledging can be done on www.thegreatestrace.com," he added.
Already the richest marathon in Asia, the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon will now offer an enhanced prize fund of USD 240,000, an increase of USD 10,000 over what was on offer last year. The increase in prize money is keeping with the stature of the even, tagged as among the top ten marathons in the world.
The race categories for the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon 2008 will be as follows: Full Marathon (42.195km); Half Marathon (21.097km); Dream Run (6km); Sr. Citizens' Run (4.3km) and the Wheelchair Event (2.5km).
The Corporate Sporting Challenge, a relay race involving teams of 6 runners, each runner covering an approximate distance of 7 km to finish the full marathon, met with an encouraging response last year and will be one of the major attractions for serious runners in the corporate field.
The Corporate Sporting Challenge, along with the Corporate Challenge, the Dream Team and the Pledgers United are the vehicles that drive charity, one of the most important and positive initiatives of the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon. The 2007 edition saw approximately Rs 8 crore being raised by people for various causes of their choice. Every edition of the event has seen a marked increase in the amount being raised towards charity and 2008 should be no exception. Responsibility for the same lies with GiveIndia, the official Charity Partner, who manages the entire exercise.
Source: http://www.scmm.indiatimes.com/
