The race was flagged off by Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs and Tourism Madan Lal Khurana and nearly 4,000 runners completed the distance. Their effort turned into an extra $ 4,000 for the Indian contingent. The sponsors Samsung had promised to contribute $ 1 for every runner who completed the 4km course.

M S Yu, President and CEO of Samsung India handed over the cheque to IOA president Suresh Kalmadi. Yu also gave Rs. 1.5 lakh to Akshay Pratishthan, a NGO working for the disabled. Part of the money came from spot registrations at the stadium.

Among the legendary athletes present at the flag-off were Olympic track finalists Sriram Singh, Gurbachan Singh Randhawa, Olympian Ranjit Bhatia, 1982 bronze Asian Games medallist Pravin Jolly, Asian Games wrestling gold medallist Satpal Singh and Jagminder Singh, Equestrian sports Arjuna Award winner Adhiraj Singh, Kirti Azad, member of the 1983 World Cup cricket winning team besides Yashodara Raje Scindia, a patron of Equestrian sports.

P T Usha flew down from her training camp in Calcutta to be present at prize distribution ceremony. Khurana, the chief guest, while lauding the efforts of Samsung also expressed a desire to see more Indians on the medals podium in the coming Asian Games at Bangkok, while Kalmadi expressed his delight over the support Indian team was getting from the local runners as well as the sponsors.