Over 30,000 participants bore the early morning winter chill to participate in the Pune International Marathon yesterday

The 24th Pune International Marathon was flagged off from Alka talkies yesterday morning.

The much-awaited event of the year witnessed participation of 30,000 runners including professionals.

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The runners ran through Laxmi Road, Seven Lodge Chowk, Cantonment Board, Pune police commissionerate, Band Garden Yerawada, M G Road, Tibner Market, Wadia College, Alandi Road, Pune University Chowk, Vanaz Company, and returned back to the Nehru Stadium, which was the finish point.

In the end, Kenyan runners took the top positions but Kavita Raut of Nashik brought great joy to the crowd by winning the fourth spot in the Women's half marathon. On the other hand the Indian men disappointed as none of them could make it to the top 10.

But 21-year old Arvind Kumar Yadav, who made his debut in the marathon, finished 11th.

Those present at the event included Suresh Kalmadi, city MP and President of Indian Olympic Association, Shashi Tharoor, Minister of State for External Affairs, Harshvardhan Patil, Mohan Singh Rajpal, newly elected Mayor of Pune, Prassana Jagpal and Nilesh Nikam.

No glam quotient
Sadly, there wasn't much attendance from theu00a0 Bollywood, except for Neha Dhupia, Saurav Shukla and Rajat Kapoor, who were present to promote their film Raat Gaye Baat Gaye.

However, the event had huge support from various corporate companies, educational institutes and NGO's including Tata Consultancies, KPIT Cummins, Gold Gym and many others for awareness of AIDS.

The event had good amount of cultural programs including dance performances by Marathi actress Sonali Kulkarni.