Now one of the great sporting occasions in the world, the Mumbai Marathon started this year with 40,000 participants in the main marathon or shorter events. Two thousand five hundred took part in the full marathon itself, of which four hundred were women. Brand ambassadors for the event included John Abraham, Gabriella Szabo, Gail Devers and Morocco’s Hicham El Guerrouj, all promoting the theme of peace and unity for the event.
Keen athlete Rahul Bose was running the marathon event in aid of The Foundation, which aims to help bridge, divides in India. His supporters at the event included Soha Ali Khan, Sharmila Tagore and former Indian test captain Anil Kumble. Six kids from the Andaman & Nicobar Islands also ran with them. “Yes, the six bright kids will run today along with Soha and Anil, both of whom are very good friends of mine, and Soha’s mother Sharmila Tagoreji,” said Rahul.
Soha said, “I am happy to be participating in the 2009 Mumbai Marathon Dream Run,” she confirms, “I will be representing Rahul Bose’s charitable trust ‘The Foundation’. The recent terror attacks in Mumbai and the dangerous cocktail of terrorism and politics that our leaders are now engaging in are testing our nation’s unity.”
Along with John, Rahul and Soha other leading personalities involved in the event were Anil Ambani, Arjun Rampal, Vinay Pathak, Shreyas Talpade, Om Puri, Tara Sharma, Lillete Dubey, Dolly Thakore, Archana Chandra, Gulshan Grover and Annabelle Mehta. The marathon was won by Kenneth Mugara of Kenya who picks up prize money of $31,500 with fellow countrymen David Tarus and John Kelai in second and third places.
