Inaugural MPIM takes city by strom; Kenyans Stephen, Shyline emerge champs; brothers Rahul and Abhishek Pal fastest among Indian elites

by Shrutee K/DNS

Mumbai: The inaugural Maharashtra Police International Marathon (MPIM), the first international marathon to be organised by any state police, held on Sunday, February 9. A total of 18,000+ runners ran across the 4 race categories - Full Marathon (42 km), Half Marathon (21 km), 10 Miles (16 km) and 5 km. We also saw a strong group of International & Indian Elite compete for a prizes worth 70 lakhs+ across race categories.

Organised on a scale to rival the biggest marathon in the country, but with many more benefits to the runners, the MPIM offered backpacks and dry fit T shirts to all participants at the bib expo. Post race, the MPIM offered all runners hot breakfast and bananas, a goodie bag consisting of a sports towel, Amul Masti Chaas, a juice, a pack of Kellogs chocos. All participants will also get free downloads of their race photographs, another first for an international event.

MPIM 2020 was organised under the able aegis of  Shri Subodh Kumar Jaiswal, D.G.P. Maharashtra State and President of the Organizing Committee for MPIM 2020.

Targeted only at serious professional and amateur runners, the MPIM had all timed categories and was the first to introduce the 10 miler (16K) run, which was a runaway success. The other three categories were the Full Marathon, the Half marathon and the 5K Run. The quality of runners that registered for the MPIM can be gauged from the percentage of finishers, which was 99% plus in the half marathon and 10 Miler and 91.5 % in the Full Marathon. Motivated by the school bands on route, beautiful weather and excellent support on the route, most participants achieved their personal best during the event.

While the MPIM was conceived to improve Police-Public interaction and relations by having them run together, the organisers took positive steps to involve the community through the charity initiatives driven by Indiacares Foundation and Marathon Rockers, a completion for school bands.

The MPIM attracted an impressive gathering of dignitaries and celebrities, who came out to support this unique initiative by the Maharashtra Police, spearheaded by IG (Admin) Krishna Prakash, IPS, the Race Director and Organising Secretary. Superstars like Akshay Kumar, Ajay Devgan, Rohit Shetty, Tiger Shroff, Suniel Shetty, Farhan Akhtar, Milind Soman graced the occasion.  We had our Home Minister Shri Anil Deshmukh , Tourism & Environment Minister Shri Aaditya Thackeray, Sports Minister Shri Sunil Kedar  along with our Mumbai Police Commissioner Shri  Sanjay Barve and  Mumbai Police Addl. C.P. Shri Manoj Kumar glorifying the event with their presence . Shri Subodh Kumar Jaiswal, Director General Police, Maharashtra State & Organising President of MPIM 2020 and Shri Sanjeev Singhal Addl. Director General Police, Maharashtra State who have given their able guidance to make this event a grand success, were also present at the Flag off. Remo D'Souza and Roop Kumar Rathod were also present at the occasion to give away prizes to the best band.

The event saw participation from creme-da-la-creme of the society with Chandrashekar (Chairman - TataSons) who finished with a very good time , Unnikrishnan (Senior Editor - TOI) , Milind Soman (Founder& Ambassador - Pinkathon), buddies in uniform from Army & Navy participating in the race.

Charity drive associated with the event: The Maharashtra Police International Marathon has partnered with India Cares Foundation as the Philanthropy Partners for the event. As Philanthropy Partners, India Care Foundation laid out a solid outreach program through ‘Tread 4 Change’. Tread 4 Change is a unique community initiative where MPIM partnered will Golds Gym, who provided treadmills in 10 plus cities across the state. Through this program, the organizers reached out to Corporates who will, in turn, pledged 100Rs for each KM generated through this challenge, which would be donated to one of the 5 NGOs (Dignity Foundation, Disha, Safe Kids Foundation, Salaam Baalak Trust and Care For You) associated with India Cares Foundation.

The Tread4 Change saw participation from around 1500 runners, who clocked a total of 3627 kms and counting. MPIM also held various group promotional activities, like Wellness Camp at Mantralaya on 29^th & 30^th January 2020,Women’s run  “Maharashtra Police Midnight Evathon” held on 31^st January, 2020 night and “Ride2Rise”   a Cycle ride starting from 3 different routes Panvel, Kalyan, Mira-Bhayander till Gateway of  India on 2^nd February, 2020 morning.

Expo: The 3-day expo at Jio Convention Centre, BKC saw 25+ brands set up stalls, a police display of Arms, Bomb disposal equipment’s,  and many interactive and informative guest lectures, with a footfall of more than 20000+  people who enjoyed their visit at the Expo.

Impressive show by runners: Kenyan Stephen Kipchirchir, leading from the start, dominated the international men's elite category and stopped the clock at 2:17.39  to emerge victorious in the inaugural Maharashtra Police International Marathon, flagged off from Gateway of India on Sunday, February 9. This was the 29-year-old Kenyan's second podium from three starts and he took home Rs 3 lakhs for his efforts.

Stephen , who has a personal best of 2:11:53, put up an impressive show as he dominated the race finishing a full  2 minutes ahead of his fellow country man Dominic Kangor and Ethiopian Zike Debebe. The International Women's elite race was a close encounter with Kenyan Shyline Jepkorir edging out her countrywoman Gladys Kemboi in the last 50 meters. Jepkorir, running in only her 2nd full marathon clocked 2:41.58 and bettered her previous time of 2:57:00 by 14 minutes.

Armyman Rahul Pal clocked an impressive 2:29:44, to win the Indian elite full marathon for men, narrowly edging out Naveen Hooda by a second, who came home in  02:29:45. Sukhadev Singh came in third with a time of 02:29:53 . Meanwhile, in the Women’s full marathon, Jyoti Gawate ran with blistering pace finishing strong at 02:54:16 to clinch the trophy, much ahead of Shyalmali Singh and Ritu Pal, who finished in 02:59:56 and 03:15:46 respectively. Rahul and Jyoti also took home Rs 3 lakh each.

Rahul's younger brother Abhishek Pal made it a family affair when he won the half marathon for the Indian elite in the timing of 01:05:29. Abhishek was followed home by Ranjit Patel and Tirtha Kumar Pun, who clocked 01:05:36 and 01:06:02 respectively. Kavita Yadav won the women’s half marathon in 01:20:01, followed by Kiran Sahdev and Aarti Patil.

School Bands entertain: St, Paul's Convent High School, Dadar, Gloria Convent High School, Byculla, Yashodham High School, Goregaon and Dr. Antonio D'Silva High School, Dadar emerged the best school bands from among 20 plus schools that participated in the Marathon Rockers competition at the Expo from Thursday to Friday. The top four bands were picked by Remo D'Souza and Roop Kumar Rathod  and were awarded Rs 1 lakh, Rs 50,000, Rs 25,000 and Rs 10,000 respectively during the prize distribution on race day. They also got an opportunity to ply their skills at cheer zones along the route in the company of the Police Bands. Singer Shadab Faridi also enticed the runners with a mesmerising post-race performance.