The Indian Ultra & Trail Runners awards

The Indian Ultra & Trail Runners awards

The Virtual awards event for the Indian Ultra & Trail Runners for 2019-20 were held on 19 September. IAU President, Nadeem Khan, Athletics Federation of India (AFI) President Adille Sumariwalla and members of the Indian Ultra & Trail marathon committee Peter Dsouza and Sunil Chainani attended the function along with most of the top runners in the country.

Adille Sumariwalla commended the Indian Ultra runners for their achievements in the international arena. Nadeem Khan said that India has made rapid strides within a few years of joining IAU, and has already bagged several medals at Asia & Oceania 24 H and 100 K championships. The 2020 Asia & Oceania 24 H championships were to have been held in Bangalore in July, but have been cancelled due to the pandemic - we can hope that things normalise soon and we have a few events in the coming year including the Asia & Oceania 100 km event planned in Bangalore in September 2021.

The Indian Ultra & Trail Runners awards were instituted for the first time in 2019, and Anjali Saraogi and Ullas Narayan were the first winners of the Female & Male Ultra runner of the year 2018-19 respectively.

At the 2019-20 awards function, participants in the IAU Virtual 6 H Solidarity run and the AFI 6 H Virtual Solidarity run were informed they would get certificates for their participation in the event.

The Indian Men's 100 km team that won the Gold medal at the Asia & Oceania 100 km championship were awarded a prize which included a plaque, cash award and a sports watch. The team included Deepak Bandbe, Hemant Singh Beniwal, Vikas Malik, Suraj Chadha, Sandeep Kumar and Tlanding Wahlang.

The Indian Women's 100 km team that won the Silver Medal at the Asia & Oceania 100 km championship were awarded a prize which included a plaque, cash award and a sports watch. The team included Anjali Saraogi, Gunjan Khurana and Darishisha Iangjuh.

AFI President Adille Sumariwalla announced the Female Ultra & Trail runner of the year - and Anjali Saraogi was the winner for the second year in a row. The prize included a plaque, cash prize and gift vouchers for several sports goods.

IAU President Nadeem Khan announced the Male Ultra & Trail Runner of the year - and Deepak Bandbe was the winner. The prize included a plaque, cash prize and gift vouchers for several sports goods.

The Awards committee had arranged to dispatch the prizes in advance to friends/family of the winners who were located in various destinations across the country. However, these friends/family did not reveal the names of the winners and the prizes before the announcements were made. It did come as a big surprise to all the winners when the prizes were physically handed over to them during the Virtual awards ceremony.

The winners were naturally surprised and delighted, and we can hope these awards spur them on to better achievements in future.

Sunil Chainani
National Team Manager