Ahmedabad, 5 January 2014

Gujarat Chief Minister Shri Narendra Modi today morning flagged off the fourth edition of Reliance Sabarmati Marathon Amdavad at Sabarmati river front. Modi had conceptualized marathon event first time in year 2010.

Dressed in white coat, Gujarat Chief Minister Shri Narendra Modi delivered his speech in Hindi.

He said there are 500 places in the world where marathon events are held regularly. For last few years, Gujarat has also stepped in. Surat, Vadodara, Rajkot and Ahmedabad are the four cities participating this marathon movement. Those participating in this event deserve congratulations. Some people think that competitions are just for winning, but according to me, participating is important. Around 19,000 youths have decided to run.

Modi said such event creates image of city and fills city with joy and energy. Such occasion provides an opportunity to connect each section of society, and they walk unitedly in single direction.

“Jab kadam milte hai
to man bhi milte hai
aur jab man milte hai
tab maksaad bhi aasaani se prapt hota hai,” Modi said before flagging of the event.

Modi who has two events scheduled today at Raigad and Delhi left the stage at around 6.40 am after flagging off wheel-chair run for disabled people.

Modi during his stage presence only talked briefly to Municipal Commissioner Mohapatra. When Modi was on stage, a large group of dream runners – instead of running – were enthusiastically capturing Modi’s pictures. They had to be requested to run.

There are over Rs. 75 lakh prizes associated with this fourth Sabarmati Amdavad marathon event.

Red FM RJ Devki and Harshil anchored the event.They asked participants to jump thrice for warming up. The participants clapped for police jawans and officials present in early morning duty. A special song with lyrics ‘Amdavad daud, maryada have tod, susti pachhal chho‘ was played at the event venue.

Ahead of Modi’s arrival, in informal talk, Major Nitin Joshi who faced accident and got plaster in one hand but successfully completed an event involving 10 km running + 40 km cycling + again running spoke to participants and encouraged the youths to join the Indian Army. He also talked about how he spent 29 minutes in a swimming pool full of ice-cubes in an event organized in Meghaya. 42-year-old Joshi asked youths to stay away from gutkha/tobacco.

City Municipal Commissioner, Mayor, standing committee chairman, former Mayor Vora, MLA Bhushan Bhatt, officials of sponsor company RIL among others were present at the venue.