Subrahmanya, Oct 22 (DHNS): Veteran Athletic Federation of India in association with Panja Government PU College sports development committee will host a national-veterans’ half-marathon and mini-marathon on November 14. 

The new Koti Chennaya Stadium with 400 mts track will also be inaugurated, said Federation President M R Ranganath.

He said the process of developing the college’s 200 mts-track into a 400 mts track stadium is complete and ready for inauguration. The process began on October 2 last year with the participation of the Federation and the local sports development committee. The stadium will be named after Koti Chennaya, he said.

As part of the inaugural ceremony, national veterans’ half-marathon and mini-marathon will be conducted. The marathon will begin from Subrahmanya and will culminate at Panja. The competition will be held in a total of 18 categories among men and women. A sum of Rs 3.75 lakh will be distributed as prize among the winners. As many as 1,200 athletes from 24 states will be participating, Ranganath said.

The development of the college ground into a stadium with 400 mts track is the first phase of the plan. In the next phases, a multi-purpose indoor stadium, a gym and a sports hostel with 150 capacity will be built with Rs 6.5 crore budget. Foundation stone will be laid for these projects on November 14. The target of the project is to make athletes from these villages participate in the 2020-2024 Olympics, he explained.

Rolfy Mascarenhas, Dayananda Kumar, Sylvester D’Souza, Suvarnini, Prakash D’Souza, Monappa Poojary, Thukaram Yenekal, Logodhara Acharya, Yogish Chidgal, Principal Srilatha were present.