GivingBack BAR Duathlon
No one understands the importance of mobility more than those that are immobile. No one understands the pain of being immobile and feeling helpless better than those that have suffered debilitating back injuries. The utter helplessness of a breadwinner that is bedridden, unable to provide for his family can be paralyzing both physically and mentally. When that breadwinner is underprivileged, unable to pay for a medical procedure that could get him/her back on their feet, GivingBack steps in and helps them with free and subsidized back surgeries.
GivingBack is an initiative of the Sita Bhateja Charitable Trust and is dedicated to the cause of providing world-class cutting-edge spine surgeries irrespective of boundaries. The GivingBack program has been in existence since 2014 and has performed over 400 subsidised spine surgeries using cutting edge technology such as neuromonitoring, surgical navigation, microsurgery and minimally invasive surgery based purely on the merit of the case among others. GivingBack is dedicated to providing the highest quality of spine care with the most modern technology and making this technology available to its patients at a fraction of the cost. The GivingBack program is supported by a full team of specialists from various specialities such as neurosurgery, spine surgery, neuroanesthesia, physiotherapy and rehabilitation.
Runners and cyclists who are no strangers to injuries of various kinds understand the seriousness of a back injury and can empathize with the spirit of GivingBack. Therefore, Dr. Arvind Bhateja, who is a competitive masters’ cyclist himself, believes that the athletes’ community is a perfect ally for raising awareness and funds for the GivingBack program.
In 2021, Dr. Arvind Bhateja together with BikeyVenky of Bangalore Amateur Racing and Dipankar Paul, a friend of GivingBack, put together a plan to organize a Duathlon event to raise funds. This was the first of many events. GivingBack plans to hold a fundraiser event every year on the fourth Sunday of May and on the fourth Sunday of November.
Duathlon is a format that involves running as well as cycling. Since many athletes might not do both, a team relay format was introduced where one athlete can do the running while a second athlete can do the cycling.
Apart from Individual Duathlon, and Team Relay Duathlon, a 10km run only and 33.5km cycling only formats were added to encourage more participation from the running and the cycling communities.
Across the various formats of the duathlon, nearly 200 athletes registered and contributed to the cause of GivingBack in the overwhelming fashion that is so typical of the Bangalore cycling and running communities.
Athletes participating in the Individual Duathlon format rode 24.5km on the Old Madras Road (OMR), dropped off their cycles in a designated transition area and then ran 5km on a beautiful loop going through some lovely country roads.
In the Team Duathlon format, the cyclists rode 33.5km on the same OMR course while their running teammates ran two loops of the 5km course completing the required 10km.
Athletes of the Running only format ran the 10km along with the runners from the Team Duathlon format.
And finally, athletes in the Individual Time Trial format also rode the same 33.5km course on OMR.
10 K Running | Female |
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1st Place | Rama Ranjani |
2nd Place | Chaitra R |
3rd place | Kaveri Velankar |
10 K Running | Male |
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1st Place | Sridhar |
2nd Place | M Chandrashekahraiah |
3rd place | Parthasarathi Panda |
Individual Time Trial | Female |
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1st Place | Asheshwari Swain |
2nd Place | Shweta Sastri |
3rd place | Aditi Vig |
Individual Time Trial | Male |
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1st Place | Rudra Atreya |
2nd Place | Maniraj Rathore |
3rd place | Sunit Sehgal |
Individual Duathlon | Male |
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1st Place | Ashok Kumar |
2nd Place | Kumar Gaurav |
3rd place | Nirav Patel |
Individual Duathlon | Female |
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1st Place | Bhagyashree |
2nd Place | Arpana Jain |
3rd place | N Gokhalay Kheny |
In Team Duathlon male, the Duo from TeamBROS, Sangram Jena and Vishnu Janardhan took the top honors.
In Team Duathlon mixed category, the Spectrum Racing Duo of Shilpa Deo and Mohan Kumar took the win.
In Team Duathlon Female, the dynamic duo of Samyuktha and Harikrupa Padmanabhan took the top honours.
Executing and pulling off several races, in different formats, across different categories and on the same day is not an easy task. Nevertheless, with gracious and kind support from the community, GivingBack was able to pull it off with aplomb.
GivingBack had the support of friends such as Shreyas Karnad of Runners360, Promise Gangani of Bangalore Bicycling Championships, Deepak Majipatil of Tour of Nilgiris, Sunil Nanjappa of Bangalore Mountain Festival, Vasu Mishra, Chenthil Mohan of Sports Anon, Dr. Anindita Bhateja, Dr Aiyesha Gulfam and many other volunteers to pull off this massive event with more than 200 participants across the various race formats and categories.
GivingBack thanks each and every participant, volunteer and supporter who was pitched in and contributed towards the GivingBack program.
GivingBack can be contacted via its website www.GivingBack.co.in, via social media on Facebook or Instagram or via WhatsApp on