Sports Minister Aadhav Arjuna’s claim that Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay is the first Chief Minister in India to participate in a marathon and run three kilometres has been contradicted by publicly documented events from October 2024, when Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah completed a 21-kilometre half marathon in Srinagar.
Speaking at the anti-drug awareness marathon organised in Chennai, where Chief Minister Vijay participated in a three-kilometre run, Aadhav Arjuna described the event as unprecedented in Indian political history.
“Among all the Chief Ministers we have had, ours Thiru C. Joseph Vijay is the only one in Tamil Nadu (and indeed in India) to participate in a marathon and run a distance of 3 kilometers. No other Chief Minister in the history of Tamil Nadu has ever done this.”
The minister further projected Vijay’s participation as symbolic of a healthier Tamil Nadu and described him as India’s only “youth Chief Minister.”
“When a Chief Minister wakes up at 5:00 AM, arrives promptly, and completes a 3-kilometer run, it signals that Tamil Nadu, too, is set to become healthy just like our CM. There is no other ‘youth CM’ like him anywhere in India.”
Omar Abdullah Completed A 21-Km Half Marathon In 2024
However, Aadhav Arjuna’s assertion that no Chief Minister in India had ever participated in a marathon is factually incorrect.
On 20 October 2024, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah not only flagged off the Kashmir Marathon in Srinagar but also completed the 21-kilometre half marathon himself, as reported in News18.
Following the run, Abdullah announced on social media that he had successfully completed the event, writing that he had finished the Kashmir Half Marathon at an average pace of 5 minutes and 54 seconds per kilometre despite having never run beyond 13 kilometres before.
The event was the first international marathon organised in the Kashmir Valley and featured nearly 2,000 participants from India and abroad, including elite runners, Asian medallists and international athletes competing in the 42-kilometre full marathon and 21-kilometre half marathon.
I’m so damn pleased with myself today. I completed the Kashmir Half Marathon – 21 KM at an average pace of 5 min 54 sec per KM. I’ve never run more than 13 KM in my life & that too only ever once. Today I just kept going, propelled by the enthusiasm of other amateur runners like… pic.twitter.com/yZVjFz5oJ4
— Omar Abdullah (@OmarAbdullah) October 20, 2024
Earlier that morning, Abdullah had flagged off the marathon alongside actor Suniel Shetty before joining the race himself, completing a distance seven times longer than the three-kilometre run highlighted by Aadhav Arjuna.
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