Marathon prize should be used in creating infrastructure:Ashis

Marathon organisers in the country offer hefty prize money to attract best runners from the world but Ashis Roy, the Marathon Man of India, feels that such huge sums should instead be utilized to develop infrastructures for running.
"At a marathon, recently, an African runner was awarded some USD 41,000 dollars for winning the event. No where in the world such prize money is offered in the marathons. Running habit should be inculcated amongst people. There shouldn't be any prize money attached to motivate individuals to run," said 81-year-old Roy, who has run 115 marathons in the last 28 years.

"Running should be introduced as a subject in schools. Children from the age of 4-5 need to be taught about benefits of running. Running forms the core for excellence in any sport. We need good runners if we want to a be sporting nation," he said at the launch of his second book titled 'Wonderful Joys of Running' here today.
"I don't run to gain money or anything. I run for the pleasure of mind. Also it helps a person improve mentally besides making him or her physically fit," said the retired Wing Commander who worked as a Cardiologist.
The book contains description of running on health and tips on how to run marathons. It also provides training details for people from age group of 20 to 80 years on running apart from his own experiences of participating in long-distance races across the world.