Turkistan Marathon 2022 took place - a running event in a colourful ethnic style

This Sunday, 30 October 2022, Turkistan hosted its first marathon – Turkistan Marathon 2022, arranged by Super Sapienz and “Courage to be the First” Corporate Fund with the support from the Ministry of Culture and Sports of the Republic of Kazakhstan (NC Kazakh Tourism JSC) and the Akimat of the Turkestan Region.

An opening speech and words of welcome on the start line were delivered by the Akim of the Turkestan Region, Darkhan Satybaldy, Board Chairman of National Company KazMunayGas, Magzum Mirzagaliyev, and Chairman of the Tourism Industry Committee of the Ministry of Culture and Sports of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Dastan Ryspekov.

It is worth noting that the track is officially certified according to the World Athletics standards, and in future the marathon will claim the title of an international event in the Central Asian region.

The youngest participants, who are children aged from 10 to 14 years, opened the competition at 7:30 a.m., running a distance of 3 km.

The marathon runners started at 08:20 a.m. Utkirov Bakhtiyor (Uzbekistan) has become a 42-km distance winner among men with 2 hours 25 minutes 34 seconds. The fastest among women was Aidossova Diana (Kazakhstan), who managed to finish the distance in 3 hours 08 minutes 54 seconds.

The marathon runners were followed by the half marathon runners, the 10-km athletes and the Nordic Walking participants, who started at 8:30 a.m. Akhmadeyev Rinas (Tatarstan) was the first to finish the distance among the half marathon men with a 1 hour 3 minutes 43 seconds result. Kalilkyzy Ainuska (Kyrgyzstan) became a winner among women (1 hour 14 minutes 8 seconds).

Dzhanarstanov Yerzhan (Kazakhstan) finished a 10-km distance first among men. His gun time is 32 minutes 23 seconds. Neroznak Tatyana (Kazakhstan) finished first among women with a 34 minutes 25 seconds result.

For more results, please visit https://www.almaty-marathon.kz/ru/results/turkistan_marathon_2022.

The overall leaders and winners in age categories were awarded cash vouchers, valuable prizes and diplomas. The oldest marathon participants were honoured in a special way. A 75-year-old runner, Marat Baltabayev, ran his 80^th anniversary marathon. Another oldest runner participating in a 21.1-km distance race, Amengulsin Musylmanova, was awarded as well.

Young athletes were also paid special attention and were awarded valuable prizes for their wins.

It is worth mentioning that the prize fund of the Turkistan Marathon amounted to more than 8,000,000 KZT.

“We would like to thank marathon participants and our partners for trusting us. We believe this is the first, but not the last, bright sports event in our country. Our team will continue to do their best for you to enjoy the most memorable emotions in your life,” Super Sapienz representative Yerlan Dzharylkasimov said.

After crossing the finish line, all participants were welcomed by a fabulous entertainment program on the stage hosting the performance of music bands and the awarding ceremony for the marathon winners. The performance show by the drum band of Bugarabu, the famous Kazakh modern ethnic band Steppe Sons allowed nobody to stay indifferent.

“We hope that running the sports events in this wonderful city will become our tradition. Turkestan welcomed us with excellent weather and an incredible, colourful atmosphere. We are glad that by holding events in various cities of our country, we contribute to the development of national tourism,” Saltanat Kazybayeva, Director of “Courage to be the First” Corporate Fund, comments. “The city infrastructure has improved significantly in recent years. We should say special thanks to the City Akimat for that.”

Marathon general partner: Petro Kazakhstan, CNPC, KazMunayGas, Rixos Turkistan.

Please bear in mind that the registration for the City Run, a final race of this running season, is underway. The event will take place on 13 November. Registration for all events is available on almaty-marathon.kz.

Organizers of the Turkistan Marathon 2022: Super Sapienz in cooperation with “Courage to be the First” Corporate Fund with the support of the Akimat of the Turkestan Region and the city of Turkestan.