– NEW YORK
Dancers from NYC Bhangra opened New York City Marathon festivities in Central Park Oct. 31, as runners from around the world paraded across the marathon finish line.
Representatives from New York City-based running clubs, several U.S. organizations, professional runners, and wheelchair athletes also joined in the procession. A fireworks spectacular ended the festivities.
More than 50,564 runners including several Indian-American participants made history on Nov. 2 as the world’s largest number of marathon finishers, surpassing 50,000 finishers for the second year in a row, New York Road Runners President and CEO Mary Wittenberg announced.
Runners traversed the 22.6-mile course through the city’s five boroughs while thousands lined the route to cheer them on, while millions watched the event on TV.
The 44th annual marathon was sponsored by Tata Consultancy Services.
In a massive image-building exercise, TCS flooded the metropolis with tens of thousands of its logo as the sponsor of the world’s premier long-distance running event, the Indo Asian News Service reported.
After the financial institution, ING, ended its title sponsorship of the marathon, TCS stepped in last year to sign an eight-year contract. “TCS won us over with their commitment to our sport, to making a difference in our communities through running, and through their aspirations to help us embrace and use technology,” Wittenberg said.
“Driven by TCS’s digital, financial, strategic, and marketing support the goal is to make the New York City Marathon the most technologically advanced and socially engaged marathon in the world,” a statement from TCS said.
TCS CEO N. Chandrasekharan is himself a marathoner who ran in the New York Marathon in 2009 and the Boston Marathon in 2012. The company is also title sponsor of the Amsterdam Marathon and has also sponsored marathons in Boston, Chicago, Amsterdam, Singapore and Mumbai.
African runners dominated the Nov. 2 marathon with Kenya’s Wilson Kipsang winning the men’s marathon with a time of 2 hours, 10 minutes, 55 seconds. Ethiopia’s Lelisa Desisa was behind him by 11 seconds. Among the women runners, the first and second places went to Kenyans: Mary Keitany with a timing of 2 hours, 25 minutes and 7 seconds, and Jemima Sumong followed 3 seconds later. The first place winners get a prize of $100,000 and the second place winners, $60,000.