Jonty Rhodes to participate in the Great Delhi Run
New Delhi, Oct 20: Former South African cricketer Jonty Rhodes will lace up his running shoes to join thousands of participants in the Airtel Delhi Half Marathon here Sunday.
Rhodes, who retired in 2003 after playing 52 Tests and 245 ODIs, will run in the Great Delhi Run category.
The IAAF Gold Label Race, known to be one of the fastest courses in the world, has become a preferred event for world class athletes and India's best.
The USD 2,80,000 prize purse event will witness over 34,000 runners in five different categories -- Half Marathon, Open 10K Run, Great Delhi Run, Senior Citizens' Run, and the Champions with Disability.
On his role at the event, Rhodes said he was amazed to see the change in mindset of people towards running and fitness in general.
"To get India moving is so important, especially the kids sitting on a couch playing playstations and tablets everyone has forgotten to move and that's why I am happy to be here as Puma athlete at Airtel Delhi Half Marathon and support the mass participation," Rhodes, a fielder par excellence in his playing days, said.
The 49-year-old also unveiled the Puma Finishers Tee, that will be given to the first thousand finishers of the race, at an event here on Saturday.
"This is the closest I will get to the T-shirt because I am not going to be one of the first thousand finishers," Rhodes said.
The former cricketer will lend his inspiring stories of athleticism to support the race that will show the same energy and vibrancy that Rhodes once exhibited on cricket field.
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Mumbai family deaths: FDA finds no watermelon vendor in area to check for affected stock
Mumbai (PTI): The Food and Drug Administration team probing the cause of death of four members of a family in south Mumbai's JJ Marg area have not been able to zero in on any watermelon vendor in the vicinity to check if the fruit had a role to play in the ill-fated incident, an official said on Thursday.
The Dokadia family, residents of Ghari Mohalla on Ismail Kurte Road, had hosted a get-together of relatives on the night of April 25. At around 1 am, hours after the guests had left, Abdullah Dokadia (40), his wife Nasreen (35), and daughters Ayesha (16) and Zaineb (13) ate pieces of a watermelon.
They suffered severe bouts of vomiting and diarrhoea in the early hours of April 26 and were rushed to a local hospital before being referred to the government-run J J Hospital where all four died during treatment.
"The FDA team visited the house of Dokadia and collected samples of chicken pulao and watermelon pieces. After two days, the leftover chicken pulao had developed fungus growth. The team also tried to locate watermelon vendors to check for any affected lots," he said.
But no vendors were found in the area for the past two days, preventing the FDA team from getting samples, the official added.
The FDA has requested the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) to share the report on the food samples collected by them, he added.
A senior Mumbai police official said the force is waiting for FSL reports in the case, adding that questions on presence of sedatives etc in the fruit could be answered only then.
The statements of the kin of the deceased are being recorded to ascertain if it is a case of mass suicide, and it is being checked if the Dokadia family were in debt or distressed over some issue, the police official said.
