New Delhi, Oct 29 : Come November, school children from across the country gather in the national capital for the Salwan cross-country run, and the 15th edition of the eagerly awaited race is slated for Sunday, Nov 8.

In the inaugural year in 1994, only 300 Delhi school kids participated. Today Salwan is listed as one of the largest school marathons in the world and a key event in the Indian athletics calendar.

This year, over 30,000 students from 600 schools from Cochin, Bangalore, Vadodara, Dehradun, Kolkata and Delhi will take part in three age-group races run over a
3km-8km stretch in the Delhi Contonement area. There is a separate 3km run for the visually impaired.

Announcing the details of the race, the man behind the venture - Inder Dutt Salwan - said this year the Mittal Champions Trust, which has been funding champions like Olympic gold medallist shooter Abhinav Bindra and shuttler Saina Nehwal, has joined hands to help organise the event.

To encourage the young athletes, five Olympians -- Bombayla Devi, Dinesh Kumar, Preeja Sreedharan, Sinimol Paulose, Harveen Srao -- will be running with 840 visually impaired children.

Inder Dutt says nothing is more satisfying than seeing the youngsters taking sports seriously.

"The idea behind starting the cross-country race for the school children is to make them aware that sports is part of their curriculum and that they should take it seriously," Dutt told IANS.

"Earlier, the attendance at the Salwan boys and girls schools used to be poor and the pass result a mere 29 per cent. I realised that the children needed a medium to express themselves and there could be no better medium than sports," Dutt said.

"Today the attendance is 93 per cent and a cent percent result in both the schools."

Few know that international cricketers Ashish Nehra, Amit Mishra, Piyush Chawla, Akash Chopra, Vinay Lamba and Raman Lamba are products of the Salwan School.

In 1999, Salwan spread its wings beyond the borders and invited Pakistani students to participate in the race and in 2001 Salwans organised an International athletic meet with participants from 17 counties, including Kenya, Belarus and Ukaraine.

But Dutt says he shelved it when he found the meet did little to help the Indian athletes.

"We realised that we first need to create a bank here. None of the Indians could win in the race that was organised in the under-17 and senior category. So, we decided to nurture athletes at the grassroots level and we began to focus on the students from all over the country," he said.

"This year too the focus is on the younger athletes who will hopefully rise to compete at the highest level."

The Salwan marathon will be held in under-14, under-16, and under-18 categories. The winner in each category will get a prize of Rs. 10,000, runner-up Rs. 5,000 and the third-placed Rs. 2,500.

There will be 100 consolation prizes to be won in each category. Besides certificates will be awarded to all participants.(IANS)