Chandigarh : Rising India Youth Organisation (RIYO) successfully organised RIYOTHON 2019, a marathon for Chandigarh residents with a thousand participants honing their long distance running skills. The enthusiasm and ‘Josh’ of the students had to be seen to be believed. Wide participation of the Chandigarh citizens was reflected in the age profile of the participants also. The youngest participant was 7 year old and eldest was 57 year old.
A 2 minutes silence was observed in which participants paid homage for the pulawama attack martyrs. The registration process started around 5:15 AM and all the participants received RIYOTHON 2019 T-shirts rendering a festive aura to the whole occasion.
The marathon was flagged off by Sh Rajesh Kalia, Mayor Chandigarh and Sh Aseem Goel, MLA, Ambala City at 7 am. Mr Aseem Goel applauded the spirit of the theme of the RIYOTHON 2019 “Run for vote- vote for nation” by asking the participants to elect a strong government.
The participants traversed through the picturesque Leisure Valley enroute to the finishing line and flashed victory signs on completing the run. After, refreshments the keynote speaker Sh Shankranand asked the participants to embibe good moral and cultural values in the day to day life to serve the nation. Sh K K Yadav, MC, Chandigarh and Sh Deepak Joshi distributed the medals and certificates to the top participants.
The young participants extolled the Swatch Bharat campaign by launching the cleanliness drive from the venue itself.
RIYO is a student platform based in North India, aiming towards the overall personality development and grooming of the students by channelizing their energies towards nation building through intellectual stimulation, social work and various cultural and physical activities activities. The gamut of events organized by RIYO encompass tree plantation, quiz competitions, youth conclaves, medical camps, wall painting and the crowning glory being the annual festival Tiranga Band in Every Hand in which 40000 people have rededicated themselves for nation building by wearing Tiranga Bands on their wrists