Delhi came alive with high energy and sound of excitement on Sunday morning as youngsters from various age groups, filled with joy and enthusiasm participated in the world's largest race for school children — Salwan cross country run. The event brought together more than 50,000 students from 800 schools across India for the 20th edition of the marathon.

The race this year promised to be more challenging than before as the organisers had carefully planned a route which was tougher than previous years. In order to circumvent cheating, this edition of the run saw the introduction of GPS based chip technology, which was used for the first time to track the distance of the participants.

The race was made even more special with 2,500 visually impaired and differently abled children participating in the marathon.

Commonwealth Games medallists Arpinder Singh, Mandeep Jangra and Pinky Jangra were the chief guests for the occasion and they ran with the visually impaired children as volunteers.

The organisers in association with SRL Diagnostics also conducted age verification checks and dope tests of the top twenty winners across all categories to ensure a level playing field.

The race this year was flagged off by Lt. General Om Parkash, PVSM (Param Vishisht Seva Medal), AVSM, SM (Quarter Master General-Indian Army).

The marathon categorized participants in 8 different categories - visually impaired, intellectually challenged (4.5 kms), Under 14 Girls and Boys (4.5 kms), Under 16 Girls and Boys (6 kms) and Under 18 Girls and Boys races (8 kms).

Commonwealth games medallist Arpinder Singh (Bronze medal in Triple jump) speaking about the event said, “It's so wonderful to see all these children running with high energy level and so much enthusiasm. This race is one of the world's largest races for school children and today these children proved it why.”

“It's a good initiative and opportunity for these children and they should take it up because they are the future of our country.”

Arpinder achieved a jump of 16.41 metres in Glasgow to win bronze but wasn’t fully satisfied with his showing.

“I was confident that I would go home with a medal but I was not totally satisfied with my performance as I didn't have much exposure and experience. Four of my jumps were disqualified because of the fouls. I need to work on my running technique and hopefully I will get a better result next time. My next targets are the International Championships and World Championship.  I am training very hard for 2016 Rio Olympics and ironing out my flaws so that I can make my nation proud again,” he told The Pioneer.

Source: http://archive.dailypioneer.com/sports/50k-students-run-in-salwan-marathon.html