Mangaluru: The city witnessed an impressive display of athletic grit and power as the inaugural ‘Strengthon Founding Edition’ concluded on Sunday at the Aikya Sports Facility. The event featured participants from different age groups, with 60-year-old Chandrashekhar Shetty emerging as the oldest participant and 19-year-old Gaurav Shetty as the youngest.The participation across age groups was one of the highlights of the event, with the organisers seeking to promote fitness and performance beyond conventional age-based sporting events.The competition featured repeated 200-m sprints and five performance stations — sledge push, animal walk, sandbag lunges, farmer carry and tyre flip. The format tested participants on strength, endurance, power, movement and overall work capacity.In the open men category, Dr Hemanth emerged as the winner, while Veena Rodrigues secured the top position in the open women category. In the Strong55+ men category, Sadananda Alva, 56 won the title. Dr Sapna S, 58, and Chandrashekhar Shetty, 60, were among the founding athletes in the Strong55+ categories. Shetty, a retired All India Radio sound engineer and founder of Sound Spot Enterprises, was the first athlete to register in the Strong55+ men category, while Sapna was the first to register in the women’s category. All participants were recognised as ‘Founding Athletes’ and received live timing results, individual performance insights and a strengthon score.Strengthon founder Nitin Shriyan said two more editions are being planned.“The other two upcoming events, Strengthon Spark for teenagers and kids and Strengthon Pro for high-performance athletes, will likely be scheduled in Dec,” he said. The organisers added that the two formats are intended to expand the platform to younger participants as well as athletes seeking higher performance standards.
