KIIT & KISS Mini Marathon: 6,000 Women Run In Sarees At Pattathon In Bhubaneswar

Bhubaneswar: KIIT-DU organised the much-awaited annual mini marathon on Saturday across all districts of Odisha and various cities in India and abroad.

This moto of this year’s mini marathon, held at 37 locations in Odisha and 65 places across the country, was ‘Education for All’.

A special segment of event called ‘Pattathon’ was held exclusively at Bhubaneswar.

The ‘Pattathon’, organised by K-3 Ladies Club of KIIT, saw the participation of around 6,000 women, who ran wearing traditional sarees.

Women employees from KIIT, KISS and KIMS, along with others from across the city, participated in the event held from 7 am to 8 am. The participants started from Shikharchandi Temple Square and finished at KISS Athletics Stadium.

Kiran Mahato from Rourkela bagged the first prize of Rs 50,000, while Tejaswini Kispatta and Sasmita Behera from Cuttack won the second and third prizes, receiving Rs 40,000 and Rs 30,000, respectively.

Seven runners-up were awarded Rs 10,000 each. All the winners were also gifted traditional sarees.

Odisha Speaker Surama Padhy, Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation Mayor Sulochana Das, corporator Pritinanda Routray, athletes Dutee Chand and Anuradha Biswal took part in the event along with KIIT, KIMS & KISS founder Dr Achyuta Samanta, KIIT-DU VC Prof. Saranjit Singh and Registrar Prof. J R Mohanty.

Since its inception in 2016, the mini marathon is conducted every year under Dr Samanta’s leadership with an aim to raise awareness on education for all.