Organisers of the 17th edition of the Tata Mumbai Marathon (TMM) launched registrations for the 2020 run on Wednesday. This time around, the marathon will have a special focus on women, senior citizens and the disabled.

The marathon has been scheduled for January 19, 2020, and will have six categories — full marathon (42.195km), half marathon (21.097km), open 10K run (10km), dream run (5.9km), senior citizen’s run (4.2km) and champions with disability run (1.5km).

The 10km category, which was started last year, will be only for women and charity runners.

“Over the years, we have seen that the number of women participants has been increasing drastically, which is why we decided that a category needs to be created especially for them,” said Vivek Singh, joint managing director, Procam International, the company which organises the event.

Singh added that the need was felt to come up with a special run for women in the 10km category because it is a target which is not too difficult to achieve, so even first-timers can give it a try.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Shaina NC, who was present at the registration launch of TMM 2020 on Wednesday, said that the marathon has created a safe space for women in the city.

“No woman has ever reported an instance of ‘bad touch’ during the event, despite the fact that so many people across various backgrounds and different social strata participate in it,” said Shaina.

Senior citizens and runners with disabilities have been given a time relaxation to qualify for participation in the half marathon this year onwards. While senior citizens can qualify for the run with a 20-minute relaxation, those with disabilities get 20 minutes to an hour.

The registration for participation in TMM 2020’s full marathon will begin on July 26 while that of other categories will start from August 1.

First Published: Jul 25, 2019 07:01 IST