Fitness freak John Abraham and Gul Panag and writer, lyricist Prasoon Joshi, Maharashtra’s Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar, Mumbai Cricket Association’s president Ashish Shelar were present at the launch of TATA Mumbai Marathon 2018 on Tuesday in Mumbai. While addressing the event John Abraham lauded Ethiopian running legend Haile Gebrselassie calling him god of religion of fitness.
Haile Gebrselassie is a retired Ethiopian long-distance track and road running athlete. He won two Olympic gold medals over 10,000 metres and four World Championship titles in the event. He won the Berlin Marathon four times consecutively and also had three straight wins at the Dubai Marathon. Further to this, he won four world titles indoors and was the 2001 World Half Marathon Champion.
Addressing the event, John said, “First of all, I am very proud to be brand ambassador of TATA Mumbai Marathon. I am here not in the capacity of an actor. I am here to make a difference to someone’s life and each of us out here is to make difference to someone’s life. I love being fit because being an actor, it’s important to lead from the front and lead by example. I say this with lot of pride because I have good habits and I am proud of it. I wake up early, I sleep early and I eat right but today I am like child in candy store because my idol is out here. When Haile came down here last time, he gave me his jersey by signing it and I nearly had tears in my eyes because I am practically an atheist but I feel if fitness is religion then Haile is the god”
Gul Panag who was hosting the show is also big fitness enthusiast said, “Of all the hats that I wear but being runner at Mumbai Marathon is one which I wear with maximum pride. Mumbai marathon was first held in 2004 and I read about it in news paper but I couldn’t think I could run because I was medium distance runner, running 12-13 kilometers several time a week but it’s this event that proved me that I was capable of doing that and in doing that it did for many other runners. The Mumbai Marathon is gift that hasn’t stopped giving for me. It taught me perseverance, discipline and the fact that you need to dig deep to find your inner strengths. I cannot thank Mumbai Marathon for giving me that gift and to begin my tryst with running, fitness and making me household name in fitness today”.
The Tata Group has become the title sponsors of Mumbai Marathon, the country’s premier marathon event, with the hope that it becomes one of the coveted world majors in near future.
Till last year, British banking major Standard Chartered was the title sponsor of the marathon. It will now be called TATA Mumbai Marathon from the next edition in 2018.
On work front, John is working with Diana Penty in Parmanu – The Story of Pokhran.
