Excelsior Sports Correspondent
![Proud veteran athletes, who participated in 7th Airtel Half Marathon at New Delhi.](http://www.dailyexcelsior.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/page1413-300x168.jpg)
JAMMU, Nov 24: Gritty and gutsy veteran athletes of the State including Prabhat Singh (65), Tarsem Lal (65), Rajesh Padha (60), Sanjay Saini (55), V K Dogra (55), Gaurav Gupta (35) and Mrs Pawan Sharma (50) brought laurels to the State by not only participating in the 7th Airtel Half Marathon-2014 (21 km), but completing the same well before the stipulated time at New Delhi, recently.
While Prabhat completed the Marathon in 1:58 hours, Tarsem did the same in 2: 34 hours, while Rajesh Padha, who was the only participant from J&K, who had already participated in number of Marathons and allied activities completed the event in 2: 08 hours. Sanjay Saini did the job in 2:26 hours, while V K Dogra covered the distance in 2: 28 hours. Gaurav Gupta and Mrs Pawan Sharma completed the Marathon in 2:10 and 2: 35 hours respectively.
Among these athletes, Mr Padha has the distinction of participating already in 3 Airtel Half Marathons, 3 Police Half Marathons and 1 Mumbai Standard Marathon.
Mr Padha, who will be participating in Mumbai Standard Marathon on January 18, 2014, was the motivating force for all these participants for taking part in this mega event.
His motto is “Walking is good, jogging is better and running is best”.