Kadam Neelam Maruti from Mumbai University in women’s group and Barse Dutta from Pune University in men’s group won gold medal in the All India Inter University Cross Country held today at Udaipur.

The team of Punjab University, Patiala and Punjab University bagged the championship trophy in women and men categories respectively.

Cross Country run was organized by Janardan Rai Nagar Rajasthan Vidyapeeth. 1502 athletes from 120 Universities across India took part in the run which started early morning at 6:30 from Gandhi Ground.

422 female athletes ran the 5km distance. Presenting best running, Kadam Neelam Maruti from Mumbai University completed her run in 22:06 minutes and stood first, while Manju Yadav of Barkatulla University of Bhopal and Sakshi of Dayanand University, Rohtak got second and third place respectively.

In the second session, 1080 men ran the distance of 10km. Base Dutta from Pune University stood first, Dutta’s best time was 39:32 minutes. Sunil Prasad from Punjab University got second place while Kirtilal Kuhar from Pune University managed to get third position.

All India Inter University Cross Country was flagged off by chief guests Ajitpal Singh, former captain of Indian Hockey Team, Kiran Ajitpal Singh, Basketball Player, T.C Damor, Vice Chancellor of Tribal University, Rajpal Premi, Television artist and Prof. S.S Sarangdevot, Vice Chancellor, Vidyapeeth.

Women Team Championship was awarded to Punjab University Patiala, second prize was given to Dayanad University, Rohtak and third prize to Kurukshetra University.

Men Team Championship award was given to Punjab University while Kurukshetra University got second and Dayanand University Rohtak got third prize.

In his short address to the present athletes, guests and audience, Ajitpal Singh said that government is not concerned about sports. He said that, new universities and colleges are opened every day for different courses but nothing has been done for promoting sports.

Singh said that a university for sports should be initiated by government and retired sportsperson should get connected to it.