Global Tamilians break into a sweat for rural TN

More than 2,000 people of Tamil origin from across the world participated in the Tamil Marathon on Sunday in their respective cities.

The Chennai edition of the marathon held at Elliot’s Beach, Besant Nagar on Sunday morning, witnessed an enthusiastic turnout of more than 500 runners. The global event held in cities with a bustling Tamil population such as Chennai, New Jersey, Toronto, Canada, London and Kuala Lumpur is being seen as an effort to bring together members of the community for a greater, and nobler cause. 

The Tamil Marathon is an initiative that was born with the aim to disseminate the importance of Tamil arts, culture and tradition. The categories of the marathon included stretches in 3, 5 & 10 km. The marathon also hopes to give a solid backing to rural development within the state Tamil Nadu in terms of education, health, sanitation, agriculture, sports and other basic needs of the rural populace. 

According to the organisers, the entire proceeds from the run would directly go towards setting up welfare measures for people in TN villages. Over 14,000 villages across 32 districts from Tamil Nadu, fall within the sphere of development. This initiative has been curated by Hemanth R, along with his team of 10 students under the banner Ingenious 6, a registered company.

Hemanth says, “This initiative will not only aid in the development of the rural community but also ensure the propagation of Tamil culture. We also want draw focus to the folk arts and rural artisans with this run.”