Participants of the cross-country race. Picture by Bhola Prasad

Jamshedpur, June 29: Residents of the Kadma-Sonari Link Road woke up today to find the clamour of horns and the rumbling of wheels missing from their morning rituals.

“Is this a rally?” asked an old resident even as his grandson craned from his balcony to watch youngsters in bright costumes warming up near the road.

Students of 20 schools played traffic-stoppers on one of the busiest thoroughfares of the city.

The occasion was the JOGA inter-school cross-country run, organised by Andhra Association English School. The race was held to commemorate the birth centenary of the legendary J.R.D Tata and ended at the starting point itself.

Students of ADL Sunshine, Carmel Junior College, DBMS English School, Valley View, Vig English School, Rajendra Vidyalaya, Motilal Nehru Public School, Vidyajyoti Chinmaya School, Kerala Samajam Model School, Narbheram Hansraj English School, Kerala Public School (Kadma and Mango) were among the participants.

Lining up on either side of the road were the cheerleaders of the schools. Besides colourful banners and buntings, lusty cheers also boosted the morale of the runners.

Residents returning after fetching milk from depots watched with bemused indulgence as the students kept up a steady flow of shouts and giggles.

A few volunteers were posted in the middle of the road while others could be found under trees, after every few metres, to offer glucose water to the participants.

Tata Steel sports department officials had arrived in advance to look after the details. “Please line up on either side of the roads,” a sports official was heard asking the students.

Cheers went up as the students were flagged off around 7.30 am. The runners crisscrossed the city, passing through the Kaizer Bungalow Road and the Circuit House before retracing their steps to the starting point after two hours.

The races were held in three categories for boys and girls — Plus-Two, senior and junior. While participants of the Plus Two and senior races ran 5 km (boys) and 3-km (girls), juniors participated in the 3-km and 2-km races.

Motilal Nehru Public School won the team championship in both the boys’ and girls’ category while ADL Sunshine emerged runners-up. Kerala Samajam Model school chairman A.P.R. Nair handed over the prizes to the winning schools.

The events of the day concluded with a thoughtful gesture by students. A special race was organised by the Jharkhand chapter of Special Olympics Bharat for a group of 80 physically-challenged children.

Students could be seen wheeling the participants on the track in the same sporting spirit in which they had run their race earlier in the day.

Charles Borromeo, technical director of state chapter of Special Olympics Bharat, said, “We brought the children to watch the race and also organised a separate event for them. We wanted them to feel part of the community and give a chance to display their sporting skills. The students coming forward to help them was a heartwarming sight.”