TN ushers in 2026 with night of rivalry, early morning temple visits and rain
Chennai (PTI): Tamil Nadu welcomed 2026 with vibrant celebrations at beaches and public spaces and prayers at temples amid tight security by police who deployed over 1.10 lakh personnel statewide to ensure safety.
The year started with rainfall, possibly the heaviest in a long while on the first day of the year, weather enthusiasts said.
Governor RN Ravi and Chief Minister M K Stalin extended New Year greetings to the people. The CM expressed confidence that the state would march towards great victories in 2026 with the courage from past struggles.
ALSO READ: Bengaluru rings in New Year with colour, music, people throng temples across state
The Greater Chennai Police mobilised 19,000 personnel and 1,500 home guards, conducting checks at 425 locations and deploying 30 special teams to curb bike racing in hotspots like Guindy, Adyar and Thoraipakkam.
Celebrations were permitted only till 1 am, with bans on sea bathing at beaches including Marina and Elliot's, firecrackers in public areas, and high-decibel music systems without permission.
According to officials, drone surveillance covered the East Coast Road from Panaiyur to Kovalam, while horse-mounted patrols and help desks were stationed at beaches to take strict action against drunk driving and stunts.
Thousands gathered at Marina Beach, Elliot's Beach, Besant Nagar and other venues for midnight countdowns, prayers and family events blending faith with festivities.
Popular spots hosted DJ nights, live bands and fireworks displays at resorts along ECR, with events like beach parties in select locations drawing crowds.
As is tradition, despite rain, fans made their way to their beloved stars, prompting police to post personnel in front of their houses to control the crowd. Crowd started surging in front of superstar Rajnikanth's house early morning itself.
Thousands of people also gathered at places of worship. Long queues for 'darshan' were spotted at almost all temples of Tamil Nadu, particularly the famous ones like the Kapaleeswarar temple and Vadapalani Murugan temple in Chennai, Meenakshi temple in Madurai, Arunachaleswara Temple in Tiruvannamalai, Ramanathaswamy Temple in Rameshwaram, Brihadeeswarar Temple, Thanjavur and Thillai Nataraja Temple, Chidambaram.
Crowds surged along the shores of Tamil Nadu to witness the first sunrise of the year.
Unfortunately, at Kanyakumari, famous for its sunsets and sunrises, skies stayed cloudy disappointing countless people who made it there specially to witness the first sunrise. People were already disappointed that they were not able to witness the last sunset on New Year's Eve, due to the cloudy weather.
Abhinaya, who had come all the way from Tenkasi with her family, said she was at the sunrise point by 3 am itself.
"You can imagine how disappointed we are that we could not see the spectacular sunrise of Kanyakumari. But we still hold on to the hope that all will be fine in 2026," said the teenager.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
