THE FIRST ALMATY MARATHON SWIM RACE GOT TOGETHER 150 PARTICIPANTS

On July 2^nd, there was The Almaty Marathon Swim Race on the Kapchagay Reservoir near Almaty. 150 amateur swimmers hit the starting line of the competition.

According to the organizing committee of the Almaty Marathon, the participants of the competition in all three distances – 500, 1000 and 2000 m — were awarded with a commemorative medal.

“Open-water competition for amateurs is our new event. Why an open-water one?  Because we have been constantly developing triathlon in Kazakhstan; this will be the next step of our efforts. As we know, the triathlon swimming stage is held open-water,” said Saltanat Kazybayeva, The Almaty Marathon Director.

The observers noted that the competitions were held at a high organizational level. All participants were taken to the place of start from Almaty, and a return transfer was arranged. The participants in different distances were provided with caps of different colors.

The first man on the longest distance of 2000 m was Ilya Gussakov with the time of 21 minutes 36 seconds; the first woman was Elmira Ibraim with the result of 22 minutes 6 seconds. As for the distance of 1 km, gold medals were won by Evgeniy Azaryev (11:45) and Olga Rumynskaya (13:16). The best time in the sprint distance of 500 m was shown by Ulan Rahmetildayev (05:56) and Aliya Zhumasheva (08:57). The results of the participants of the swim are already published on the website of the Almaty Marathon.

The organizers are the Almaty Marathon Corporate Fund, Academician Shakhmardan Yessenov Fund and Almaty Akimat; they plan to make the swim an annual sports event.

The international charity Almaty Marathon is held to promote healthy lifestyle among Almaty residents. It is a member of the Association of International Marathons and Distance Races (AIMS) and is recognized as the largest mass sports event in Central Asia. The first marathon was organized on May 27, 2012. More than 20 competitions in various sports among amateurs are held annually under the auspices of the Marathon.