Sania Mirza participates at NDTV-Nirmal Walk for Fitness

Sania Mirza supports ‘Walk for Fitness’ as part of the NDTV-NIRMAL MARKS FOR SPORTS -2 campaign

~ Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chandigarh and Kolkata strive to be ‘The Fittest City’ ~

Hyderabad, Monday, November 5, 2012: Sunday morning saw India’s Tennis Star & Hyderabad City Ambassador for NDTV-Nirmal Marks for Sports Campaign, Sania Mirza join the locals ‘Walk for Fitness’ to spread awareness of ‘The Fittest City’ contest at KBR Park. Over 1000 people participated and extended their support to the cause. The contest is part of the 2nd edition of the NDTV-Nirmal Marks for Sports campaign, an initiative that aims at changing the way India thinks about fitness and inspires us to become a healthier nation.

Sania accompanied by her sister Anam was bubbling with enthusiasm. She demonstrated her level of fitness with a bout of skipping. She was later joined by the participants of the walk in performing gangnam style dance, the enthusiastic crowd present on the occasion lapped up all the entertainment and fun. She flagged off the walk and later presented gift vouchers of Rs 5000/- each to ten lucky participants and one lakh gift voucher to the bumper winner Vignanandam.

After last year’s grand success, NDTV and Nirmal launched the second edition of the ‘Fit India Movement’ on 13th July, 2012 that aims at reaching out to a larger section of society, targeting children, parents, schools and sports organizations with special focus on the overall state of fitness in India.

Taking a step further, NDTV launched ‘The Fittest City’ contest as part of the 2nd year, which will see 6 cities - Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chandigarh and Kolkata battle it out to win the title and further spread the fitness message. The contest would judge the participating cities on various parameters such as physical camps, surveys on health habits, government statistics, testing of fitness levels of children across schools, marathons, other sporting events as well as online campaigns.

The contest would keep several parameters in mind – on ground physical camps to test people, surveys on health habits, government statistics, testing of fitness levels of children across schools in these cities, participation in special camps, marathons and other sporting events along with an extensive web campaign.

Speaking on the occasion, Campaign’s Fitness Ambassador for Hyderabad Sania Mirza said, “though Hyderabad was thought to be laid back, it’s no more the scenario, with people here taking to fitness and sports enthusiastically. People here have become health conscious. More and more kids are taking to sports inspired by great sportsmen from the city like Azharuddin, VVS Laxman, Saina Nehwal etc. Today health and fitness are an important part of life and initiatives like ‘NDTV-Nirmal Marks for Sports campaign’ encourage and inspire people. She said the Tennis academy she intends to start will take a couple of months more. On being seen recently at Formula 1 Indian Grand Prix, she said her husband Shoaib Mallick is a great car racing enthusiast and owns a couple of fast cars. It was an amazing experience to zip off at 300 – 350 kms speed, she added. Regarding pairing with World No. 1 Bob Bryan in the mixed doubles, she said he is the best player in the world and it’s a great honor to play with him. She expressed remorse at none of the youngsters from India making it to the top 200-300 in the world on being asked about no good tennis player being seen on the horizon from the country after her, and was hopeful that her academy could find an answer to that question. She said her academy will also focus on rural areas and unearth the talent available there. Regarding the happenings ahead of Olympics, she said, we should move on and look at positive aspects.

Marks For Sports was launched in March 2011 with the core belief that if schools and more importantly, different boards of education include sports as a part of the main curriculum, then parents, as well as children, will devote more time to sports.

The campaign is supported by Campaign Ambassador Ranbir Kapoor and City Ambassadors - Fitness junkie Bipasha Basu for Mumbai, noted cricketer Virender Sehwag for Delhi, India’s Tennis star Sania Mirza for Hyderabad, ace Football player Baichung Bhutia supporting Kolkata, Mahesh Bhupati for Bangalore and Olympic boxer Vijender Singh for Chandigarh.

About NDTV : NDTV Ltd, founded in 1988, is India's largest news and infotainment network. It is home to the country's best and brightest reporters, anchors, camerapersons and producers. 23 offices and studios across the country host India's most modern and sophisticated production, newsgathering and archiving facilities. NDTV has an unmatched track record of successfully launching both news and lifestyle channels; NDTV 24x7 is a clear leader in the English news segment; NDTV Profit, a 24-hour business plus channel, is India's number one business news channel; NDTV India is amongst the country's leading Hindi news channels; while NDTV Good Time straddles issues from health and holistic healing to fashion and food. NDTV is credited with pioneering several broadcasting and programming initiatives in Indian television and has expanded into one of the nation's biggest broadcasting houses by growing beyond news broadcasting and venturing into non news verticals. NDTV has received many accolades for pioneering causes and for taking a leading role in Corporate Social Responsibility. For more information visit www.ndtv.com
About Nirmal : Nirmal is a leading real estate company in India based in Mumbai, where it has been instrumental in developing Mulund as a preferred suburb of the city through its integrated development plan for the suburb that includes developing retail spaces, residential apartments, office spaces and luxury hotels. The company has an exclusive alliance with US Open (USTA) and Discovery to bring to India world class sporting facilities of international standards. It will also enter into alliances with four more global sports federations in the next three months, which will enable the company to develop sports infrastructure and facilities. It also plans to bring global sports events to India through its exclusive partnership with these federations.