Marathon

Wings For Life World Run's most successful year in India yet

Over 1,20,000 runners and wheelchair participants covered 11,03,276 kms for a good cause.

Written by Soham Rane

3 min readPublished on 06.05.2019 · 12:34 UTC

Wings for Life is a charity run that seeks to improve the lives of people with spinal cord injury by investing in its research. On one day each year, the Wings For Life World Run is held simultaneously in numerous locations and the app across the world, all starting at the same time, whether day or night and all with the same goal – to raise money for the Wings For Life Foundation. 100% of entry fees and donations go toward helping to find a cure for spinal cord injury.

The app run in Bengaluru
© Red Bull Staff

Wings For Life World Run 2019 shattered previous records of the race by huge margins. 1,20,000 registered runners and wheelchair participants covered 11,03,276 kilometers across 72 countries. The run started around the world at 11:00am UTC (4:30pm IST) with exuberant participants from over 186 nationalities running away from the Catcher Car.

Kolkata's organized app run
© Red Bull Staff

The global factor of this one-of-its-kind race saw the event being held in a surprising snowfall at Italy alongside runners taking on the tropical heat across organized app runs in India. With more than 700 participants running the app runs across 13 cities – Mumbai, Kolkata, Delhi, Chandigarh, Guwahati, Goa, Ahmedabad, Pune, Bangalore, Chennai, Cochin and Hyderabad – India raised INR 6.9 lakhs for the cause.

The global event raised a staggering INR 27 crore, all of which is donated to research to find a cure for spinal cord injuries.

Speaking about the event, India's climbing sensation Tuhin Satarkar said, “I think everybody should take part in the run every year. It was a great experience to run alongside many others in the heat at 4:30pm in Mumbai and being a part of a global race. In a sport like climbing, there are quite a few who have suffered spinal injuries after an unfortunate accident. One of our climbing buddies had a terrible fall a few years ago because of which he injured his spine and faced major complications. For many like him, I think the Wings For Life initiative can add to their lives with the valuable research that the foundation helps fund.”

Tuhin Satarkar and Mira Erda with Mumbai's leading runners
© Focus Sports

The fastest Indian wheelchair marathoner, Shailesh Kumar, participated, inspiring many in the race to push themselves towards their best. He said, "Wings for Life World Run is a very good concept with such an important cause. Participating in marathons is a very good activity, and I am trying hard to qualify for the 2020 Paralympics. I believe that a spinal cord injury is one of the severest disabilities to live with. A lot of times people become inactive, just sit in one position all day, that leads to a lot of problems. You can’t feel if you get hurt, there are greater chances of infection because of that. I remember, once I was bitten by a rat in the night and didn’t even feel it. A person who can smile through adversity can achieve anything.”