Gurdial Singh of Punjab gets 1st place in 50+age 5000 mtrs event in Masters Athletics

Dharamsala, April 16, 2015: In the 5000 mtrs race men (+55age) Pawandhangar of Chattisgarh stood 1st with the timings of 20.18 minutes on the first day of the ongoing 36th National Master’s Athletics Championship being played at Sports Complex,  Dharamshala. In 50+age in same event Gurdial Singh of Punjab got 1st place, in +45 Jatinder Singh of Haryana and in  +40 Surjit Kumar of Haryana got 1st positions.

Col (Retd) S. Sharma, President of Masters Athletic Federation of India said that in this four days long Athletics meet Veterans athletes, approximately 2000 are participating  in both men and women category from Himachal Pradesh, Manipur, Chandigarh, Chattisgarh, Gujarat, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Telangana, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Uttrakhand, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Kerela.

The most elderly athlete participating is Ramachandra Reddy aged 93 years from Telengana State.

Sharma said, “The selected Athletics of this event would further participate in World Masters Athletics Championship to be held in Lyon in France from 4th to 16th August, 2015.” He informed that the Indian team which represented in Pan-Pacific Masters Games in Gold Coast Australia last year had won seven gold medals.

Chief Minister Himachal Pradesh Vir Bhadra Singh earlier inaugurated the four days long national meet in Dharamsala on Thursday.