Vadodara half-marathon to track runners using RFID technology

Vadodara: Over 120 runners from international circuit will be seen in action during the second edition of Vadodara International Half-Marathon to be held here on January 23.

The event, which would witness the likes of Wilfred Kipkoech of Kenya), Tesfaye Jifar of Ethopia competing in the field of around 30,000 participants for a prize money of worth Rs 25 lakh, will also see former sprint queen P T Usha and Bollywood actress Priyanka Chopra gracing the occasion. In fact, the half-marathon is going to be one of its kind as for the first time 30,000 runners will be tracked and traced with the help of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology in order to avoid any anomalies. "This will be the first time when 30,000 runners will be tracked and traced with the help of RFID so that any anomalies can be avoided," Chandrasekhar Murthy, Director of Samvith Infotech Pvt Ltd (company, to provide this technology during half-marathon) told reporters."This will be a world record for any marathon having the highest number of runners being tagged at a time," added Murthy. Elaborating on the arrangements made for the event, which will also feature 18,900 runners from various corporate houses located in the region, Director of the Vadodara Marathon Company (VMC) Amit Bhatnagar said that they are eagerly looking forward to the event. "Various hotels in the city have been booked by the company to provide a comfortable stay of the participants," Bhatnagar said. PTI