Kandy Fitness Run
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The recently concluded Kandy Fitness Run (KFR) was organised jointly by the Rotary Club of Katugastota and the Rotaract Club of Neptune Edification to create awareness of the health benefits of running among a wider range of people. The event was a measure to increase the health consciousness and commitment of individuals for their own well-being. This even was a first of its kind in Kandy.
KFR was a 5 km fun run. The participants were allowed to choose their own preference of run / jog / walk to complete the 5 Km distance within the given 75 minutes of time. The event attracted over 130 runners from varying age groups. Men, women and children participated with much enthusiasm to complete their run. It was a good sign to see that a lot of runners participated as families or groups of friends.
The Mayor of Kandy Kesara Senanayake declared start the run that commenced from the Kandy Municipal Council junction. The 5 Km distance was completed as two loops within the Kandy City that ended at the Trinity College Junior Grounds. All the participants received a certificate of participation and the runners who completed the distance within 60 minutes were awarded a medal. The two organising clubs the Rotary Club of Katugastota and the Rotaract Club of Neptune Edification took detailed measures to safeguard the environment at the event. The use of plastic was kept at bare-minimum and the event was completed early morning without causing any hindrance to the city traffic or the participant’s routine activities.
The organisors commented: ‘KFR was a great success and we are so delighted that our initiative was highly appreciated by the participants. Most of the participants were from Kandy but we had participants from Colombo and there were a few foreign nationals as well. We received a lot of positive feedback and mostly that everyone realised their potential to complete 5 km and that they enjoyed the event. As organisors we are happy to introduce the novelty concept to Kandy and we plan to have the event on an annual basis’.
The first three finishers in the male category with their finishing time were: Bhagya Ranasinghe (24:19), Tharindu Wikramasekara (24:46) and Kaveen Shashidharan (26:43). The female category lead finishers were: Gayathri Dissanayake (30:54), Jennifer Dias (31:38) and Krishni Balasubramaniam (37:08).