CHENNAI: Around 400 people participated in the first leg of a dawn-to-dusk run at the IIT-Madras campus on Sunday morning. The 12-hour run was held to mark 50 years of Round Table India and to raise funds for its project that aims to increase underprivileged children’s accessibility to education. The event, which was led by city-based athlete Neville J Bilimoria, was flagged off from the Open Air Theatre by TT Vasu, South Indian Honorary Consul for Sweden.
Among the runners was British Deputy High Commissioner Mike Nithavrianakis. He and hundreds of other students, who joined the first seven-kilometre leg of the run, fell back, even as Bilimoria and around 40 runners from the Chennai Runners continued to run till 3 pm.
The second leg of the run, which had Bilimoria and 30 other cyclists from the Tamil Nadu Cycling Club and Brevets Madras Randonneurs, was flagged off by R Sekar, ADGP (Railways), and former cricketer WV Raman. The cyclists joined the East Coast Road and culminated their ride at a resort in Mamallapuram, where Round Table India’s 50th anniversary celebrations were being held.
The event saw participation from a number of people, many of whom had found out about it from their friends or social networking sites. “We don’t know anybody here. We learnt about it on Facebook. So, we came here to help create awareness,” said K Sriharsha, an IT professional who had turned up with some of his friends.
Organisers said the event was a novel way of achieving their goals. “The idea is to raise money for the activities of Round Table India. We have managed to raise a fair amount, thanks to some generous sponsors. But we are looking forward to raising more money for our cause,” said Imran Pasha, Round Table.
Donations made towards the cause are tax exempted under Section 80G. Those who are interested in making donations can contact Imran at 9940178640.
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