Almaty Marathon 2024: Outcomes of the Largest Running Event In Central Asia

The start area traditionally opened at 5:00 a.m. in the Republic Square. On their way to the start line, runners and fans, who were up bright and early, were treated to a truly festive atmosphere. There was a band, rattles, vuvuzelas and the inspiring voices of presenters and guests. 

Valikhan Ten, the voice of the Almaty Marathon, host and General Director of KRIDA Fitness Club, inspired the runners of all distances: “These are your streets for the nearest time. We are proud of you!” 

Galimzhan Yessenov, Chairman of the Board of Trustees at “Courage to be the First” Corporate Fund, noticed the sharp increase in the number of participants over the years the Marathon exists. As compared to 2012, a total of 2,500 people toed the starting line, while in 2024 this number totalled to 15,600: “During this time, the Almaty Marathon has become an inclusive environment open for everyone irrespective of gender, physical abilities, running experience and other individual peculiarities. Every participant is important for us. We believe that the sports is a powerful tool for the positive changes in the society.”

Uigun Prokopyev, a volunteer, student of UIB and future entrepreneur, answered our questions about the event. It would not have been possible to organise and run the Marathon without our amazing volunteers – more than 1,500 volunteers made the Almaty Marathon happen.  “It is important for me to not only help people, but also draw energy myself. The Letter of Appreciation is pleasant, but the main thing is the experience I gain here. We, volunteers, became friends even before the Marathon, and at the event, everyone was assigned their role. I, for example, answer the questions of the participants about the start and lockers, while my colleagues will give out the medals and support the runners along the track. We have arrived here in the night, being excited about, and looking forward to the start of the run”, Uigun shares his thoughts.

Start and First Emotions

The Marathon and the Ekiden Relay kicked off by tradition at 6:30 a.m., accompanied by the inspiring compositions of “Khasak” and “Er Turan” bands. The start ribbon was proudly held by the lovely participants of the Miss Kazakhstan National Beauty Contest. The marathon runners were followed by those participating in the half marathon, the 10-km satellite run and Nordic Walking.

It was so inspiring to see thousands of fans sharing the emotion of participation in the event with the runners. The fans cheered the runners along stands in the start and finish area and in more than 50 cheering points along the track. Every year, thanks to the Almaty Marathon, more and more citizens join the run, and we’re getting closer to making Almaty a centre of high-class culture and sports!

They Are All Different!

The Almaty Marathon unites participants of different ages and physical abilities including the wheelchair-using athletes. Legendary paralympic champion, Zulfiya Gabidullina, joined them this year. She has recently come back from the Paris Paralympic Games, where she represented Kazakhstan for the fourth time.  She ran the marathon distance in Almaty and her future plans include the Turkistan Marathon and the Taraz City Run.

“Today, I have made 42.2 km. My interest was to check how far my wheelchair may be accelerated. Today, it was up to 40 km/h, and the average speed was 20 km/h. The second lap was a little more difficult: I had to steer around other participants in order not to hit anybody. I had two batteries, and when I was changing the second one, I slightly scratched my finger. A male nurse on the bike promptly treated it and I continued my way”, Zulfiya says.

Among the participants, there was Guldana Mambetova, a 33-year-old resident of Almaty, who has been participating in the runs for 10 years in a row. There was a time when she regularly ran the half marathons, but once she got married, pregnant and went on maternity leave, she stopped doing sports for a while. This year, she resumed training and in spring she ran the 10-kilometre distance. “It is not difficult to run ten kilometres if you do training, while 21.1 km is a challenge. We start at 7:20, and wait for our time. I like the atmosphere and organisation very much, especially after the break. I missed this feast of life, festival of sports”.

Her family will not stand by as well: her husband will run the Half Marathon today, and her children have two medals each for the children runs, which they overcome with ease every summer. Guldana, working as a History teacher at Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools, inspires not only her family but also her students. This year, her 11-grade student Aidana will toe the starting line along with her.

Social Responsibility

“Courage to be the First” Corporate Fund pays special attention to the ecological footprint of the event as well. Since 2019, the Fund’s team has been organising the separate collection of garbage and collects about 400 kg of waste in every large event. This year, the Fund refused to use the printed handouts and disposable structures, and only applied confetti made of biodegradable materials.

The start area of the Almaty Marathon was furnished with eco-points. This year, the Organisers in cooperation with ECO Network has prepared the unique eco-zone at EXPO, which was held on 27-28 September. All people wishing may grind the plastic on the bike shredder and at once make a key holder or magnet of the recycled material.

The charity remains to be a key part of the Almaty Marathon. A part of funds raised from the entry fees is donated to the charity projects supporting the children and the development of the sports in Kazakhstan. In 2024, the record 65.5 mln. tenge were raised for the implementation of eight charity projects. “Courage to be the First” Corporate Fund will announce new charitable projects for 2024 later.

Key partners are vital to the Marathon. Kaspi.kz is a title sponsor of the Marathon for nine years in a row. “The Almaty Marathon is about cool people, friendship, and tolerance to each other! I wish you all to be light on your feet, strong will and win!” stressed Marzhan Yelshibayeva, Executive Director of Kaspi.kz

Samruk-Kazyna supported the Marathon this year for the first time, having become the honourable partner. “Samruk-Kazyna has constructed 10 multifunctional sports complexes in the regions of Kazakhstan, 30 sports and playgrounds in rural area for the last few years. We have opened 89 sports classes for special children, correction rooms in 23 cities and villages. We make the sports available”, noted Aidar Ryskulov, Managing Director for Economics and Finance of Samruk-Kazyna National Wealth Fund JSC.

Among the World’s Best

Let’s get back to our participants. Among the first to finish are those running the 10-km distance. This is a truly massive event with almost 10,000 participants! One of the runners flew all the way from Moscow to take part in the Almaty Marathon, She comments, “I am here together with my friend Natalia, we are from the Legion Running Club. The track is splendid, there are a lot of downhills that allows you to race at maximum speed. The organisation is top-level! I ran in Moscow, and may say that the Almaty Marathon is equal, and in some things, even superior to ours — there are more free water and catering points here. We flew yesterday, and we leave tomorrow. We took leave at work. We had participated in the runs in Saint Petersburg and Nizhniy Novgorod before. This is our first international run”.

This year, the Almaty Marathon broke the record in the number of foreign participants — their share was about 10%. In total, runners from 58 countries joined the run.

“About 2,000 people, who participated in our Marathon, are the foreigners especially coming for participation. It’s worth noting that the running event is a member of the Association of International Marathons and Distance Races (AIMS) which guarantees high quality arrangements and compliance with international standards. This is why we are known far beyond our country. All our tracks are certified in accordance with the World Athletics requirements. The Almaty Marathon continues to attract more and more foreign participants”, Saltanat Kazybayeva, Executive Director of “Courage to be the First” Corporate Fund, noted.

The Nordic Walking is growing in popularity as well. As Maxim Proschenko, a founder and head of “Eurasia” Nordic Walking School and chief referee of this distance, claims the 10-kilometre Nordic Walking is attended by 700 people. “Today, there are not any marathons involving such number of participants among the Nordic Walking in the world. There are some individual events but those are not as largescale as ours. The participants becomes younger substantially: if previously those were people at the age of 35-55 years old, now the share of those aged under 30 years old increases every year”, Maxim Proschenko says.

Maxim also noticed the high level of organisation of the Marathon, “I had participated in many similar events and had been engaged in their organisation myself. I can say for sure that the Almaty Marathon ranks among the best in the world. Almaty is an amazing city with the snow-covered mountains in the horizon, which are so beautiful to run. I notice that more and more foreign people come for the Marathon”.

Anita Stanfield from Canada and Jeff Smith from USA both work at KIS International School. They may be over 50, but they’ve still got plenty of runs under their belt. They praise both Almaty and the Organisers of the Marathon.

44-year-old Ben Harvey occupies the position of IT specialist and simultaneously cooperates with archaeologists. He has been running for a long time, but he participates in the Almaty Marathon for the first time — for company with his friends. He briefly said about the Marathon, “Really great!”

Finish and Results

There are thousands of participants at the finish line. Having medals on their necks, tired, but smiling, they are drinking water, eating apples and Snatch bars from LOTTE Rakhat.

Nearby, 16-year-old Sultan Karimov, a student of private physical and technical school, is catching his breath.

“I have been running since I was 15. I have been preparing for the Marathon for six months. Everything was organised cool, there are plenty of gifts. I saw true patriotism at the start line. While I was running, many thoughts came to my mind: “Why do I need it?" and “Why do I suffer?" However, the society around encouraged us, all were running, and I was keeping on running too. If you started, why should you stop? I will surely participate in the next Marathon, again for 10 km”, Sultan said.

It’s never too late to run the distance at the Almaty Marathon. The average age of the 15,000 runners is 33 years. The oldest participant is 87-year-old Duza Mavlyutova from Almaty.

Ilya Tyapkin from Kyrgyzstan, who set up a new record for the track with the time of 02:19:44, was announced a winner of the Almaty Marathon. He got ahead of the previous record-breaker, a Kazakhstani, Shedrack Coech, wo finished with 02:21:27 in 2022. Bеgzod Boymatov (Kazakhstan) posting the time of 02:21:47 and Jandos Narau (Mongolia) posting the time of 02:23:33 took the second and third places, respectively.

Among women, Anastasia Derkach from Russia (02:45:37) finished first, Kseniya Avdeeva (Kazakhstan) and Yelena Tolstykh (Russia) posting the time of 02:47:08 and 02:50:16 came second and third, respectively.

At the Half Marathon, Nursultan Keneshbekov from Kyrgyzstan (01:04:05) came first, Rinas Akhmadeev (01:04:12) and Yaroslav Byakin (01:44:47) from Russia finished second and third. Among women, Alexandra Vdovina from Russia (01:15:41) finished first at the distance of 21.1 km, Maria Mazurenko from Ukraine (01:16:02) was second, Svetlana Kudelich from Belarus (01:16:36) was third.

The Almaty Marathon results became available immediately after the run. It is Yandex DataLens service deployed on Yandex Cloud Platform that made instant publication a reality!

The half-marathon was broadcasted live on the YouTube channel DifferentYou and the NTK TV Channel’s website

Let us recall that on 27 October 2024 (Sunday), Turkistan will host the Turkistan Marathon for the third time. Registration is already available at almaty-marathon.kz.