 L Aruna Devi from Manipur finished the Mumbai marathon in 3 hrs 9 minutes 59 seconds faster than all other Indian challengers. But, organisers fail to recognise her as Indian citizen so Indresh Dhiraj was declared as the Indian winner.
Indresh reached the target a good five minutes after Aruna Devi. Actually, volunteers in charge of ushering the winners completely missed that an Indian running with thousands of others from Africa, Europe and Asia had run past the tape-line.
Officials don`t deny that this blatant mistake could`ve been a result of volunteers mostly college students from Mumbai, who failed to recognise the 31-year-old Manipuri as an Indian, and mistaking her for a "foreign runner" owing to her North-east features.
Bruno Goveas from Procam International, the event`s promoters, said, "It`s likely that the volunteers confused her for a foreigner, so we missed her. There was a goof-up."
Organizers of the Sixth Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon 2009 were embarrassed when they mistakenly declared and felicitated a wrong person as the winner in the Indian women`s category in the 42-km Main Marathon on Sunday afternoon.
When the `wrong` person was enjoying the glory on the specially erected podium, the right winner, Aruna Devi, from the north-eastern state of Manipur stepped forward and staked her claim to the title.
The organisers found her claim to be genuine upon verification, said a spokesman for Procam International, the promoters of the event.
The spokesman said, "We apologised to her for the mistake. It should never have happened in the first place and it was entirely an error on our part."
Immediately, Aruna Devi`s name was publicly announced as the real winner and she was felicitated in a separate ceremony and handed over the prize money of US$2,500 (Rs.100, 000).
The spokesman said Aruna Devi took the faux-pas by the organisers in a sporting spirit and the matter ended amicably.
Other celebrity Mumbaikars in the run included many celebrities like Anil Ambani, Soha Ali Khan, Gulshan Grover, Milind Soman, Arjun Rampal, Vinay Pathak, Shreyas Talpade, Rahul Bose, Om Puri, Tara Sharma, Lillete Dubey, Dolly Thakore, Anand Mahindra, Amit Chandra, Archana Chandra, Sanjeev Kapoor and Annabelle Mehta among many others.
Bollywood hunk John Abraham, three-time Olympic champions Gabriela Szabo, Gail Devers and famous Moroccan long distance runner Hicham El Guerrouj were the brand ambassador of the occasion, the spokesman added.
The Mumbai Police and Traffic Police, the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM), the state government, Indian Navy and other agencies were actively involved to make the event safe and successful.
Apart from the main title sponsor Standard Chartered Bank, the associate sponsor was Tata Consultancy Services. The event was held under the aegis of the Athletics Federation of India with technical coordination by Maharashtra Athletic Association and promoted by Procam International.
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Posted On : 19 Jan 09
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