THE running culture in the Capital, which seemed on the wane of late, is seeing a revival. One of the oldest road races in the country — the Otto Peltzer race — that was a weekly affair and used to be run at the National Stadium, would be making its re-entry.
When it does this time, it will have a new nomenclature — the Otto Peltzer Cross Country race — and will be a monthly competition, the event taking place every second Saturday of each month. The first one will be run on Saturday, September 8.
According to Rupinder Singh, a participant at the Peltzer race, some like-minded people have joined hands in this venture to revive it. “It will be a regular feature in the future,” he said.
The September 8 race will be organised at the Nehru Park and the growing support for the event was evident that the organisers could rope in a sponsor in sports apparel major Adidas.
The distance in the men’s category will be 5.6 km while for women and for participants in junior section (school children) it will be a 2.8 km. The winners in each category will be given attractive prizes, said Rupinder.
Peltzer, a German International runner was the chief coach of the Indian team in 1960s. He had introduced the culture of weekly road races in the Capital. And his trainees had continued the tradition even after he left for Germany in 1970.
Several top middle and long distance runners of the past were the regulars at the weekend races held at the National Stadium. According to Captain ML Dogra, who was also an administrator at the Stadium, the Peltzer races attracted huge crowd of runners.
“The running culture then was also responsible for producing country’s several top runners. “Late Shivnath Singh and Hari Chand are some of the names that used to frequent the India Gate area training and participating in the race and represented India subsequently,” said Dogra.
India’s great middle runner Sri Ram Singh was also a product of the weekend races during the off-season, added Dogra.
He, however, regretted that running culture in the Capital had dwindled because the athletics activities were shifted out of the National Stadium and because of the distance Nehru Stadium couldn’t see that kind of response.
“After the 1982 Asian Games, athletics came to a halt at the National Stadium. In effect, it also saw the end of weekend races,” said the former Services coach.