CHENNAI: The third edition of the Kalaignar Memorial International Virtual Marathon, which is set to take place at Marina beach on August 7th, closed out with its final day of registration on Sunday.

The registration was opened for four categories ranging from 42.2 km to 5 km. Various sets of people including Defence and Naval officers and college students have registered to participate in the event.

The International Marathon, which has been held as a virtual event, will take off from Marina Beach, offline this time.

The registration fee collected from the participants for the marathon would be donated to the Egmore Maternity and Children’s Hospital.

Around 40,000 participants have registered from all over the world, and from 19 States in India.

“The marathon aims to create awareness on physical fitness and well-being of the people. The marathon would be flagged off by Siva V Meiyanathan, Minister of Sports Development, E V Velu, Minister of Public Works, K N Nehru, Minister of Municipal Administration, and Udhayanidhi Stalin, MLA and Youth Wing Secretary of DMK. A total prize amount of 5 lakh would be distributed by the CM MK Stalin to the winners of all four categories. Foreign Ambassadors to India from America, England, Japan and France are expected to participate in the event, “ health minister Ma Subramanian said.

The health department has also arranged for cultural rural arts performances including Urumimelam, Thumbiaatam and Pambai to encourage the participants.

Further, he said that the virtual marathon held in the past two years collected a total amount of Rs 80 lakh and it was donated to the Covid relief fund.

Significantly, the marathon also set a record as Asia’s largest participation for an Annual Memorial.

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