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Media

10.04.2017

9000 people participated in seventh Kyiv half marathon Nova Poshta Kyiv Half Marathon 2017

Press Release

On April 9 Ukrainian capital city hosted a great festival of running – the annual Kyiv half marathon Nova Poshta Kyiv Half Marathon 2017. 9,000 participants from 43 countries ran down the picturesque streets of Kyiv. Among them, 400 foreign runners. On this day, nearly 25,000 spectators came to the city to support the runners and more than 15,000 fans watched the competition online. Traditionally, the route of the half marathon was mapped as a circle along the Dnipro river, the start and finish lines were located at Kontraktova Square.

For the first time, Kyiv half marathon organized a unique support zone for the participants – musical half marathon honoring “Eurovision-2017”. Runners ran the course accompanied by music from the 43 Ukrainian bands that were inspiring the athletes to win. Every 500 meters of the route, starting at Podil, there was music of the countries represented at the song contest.

From the first kilometers of the half marathon, there appeared to be a group of leaders, the pace was set by an Ethiopian runner Lencho Anbesa, a runner from Kenya Wycliffe Biwott, a Polish athlete Szymon Kulka and Ukrainian runners – Roman Romanenko and Ihor Porozov. About half-way through the course, Biwott felt a spasm in his leg, so he had to slow down and could not fight for the victory. The leading group was setting the pace until the 12th kilometer, then Anbesa started to speed up. The Ethiopian athlete was running the last kilometers faster than 3 minutes per km. Among Ukrainians, Romanenko kept up with the leaders and finished third in the absolute championship with the time of 1:05.39. The athlete from Poland finished second with the time of 1:05.25, and the absolute winner of Nova Poshta Kyiv Half Marathon 2017 is Lencho Anbesa. The athlete from Ethiopia set a new track record for the route in Kyiv (1:03.56), improving the previous record by 45 seconds.

 

“I feel very happy. I can not say that the race was easy, the weather, in my opinion, was a little cool and windy. In general, everything went fine. I didn’t really try to portion my efforts along the route, I was just running at the same pace. Half marathon is not only the distance I can run, I usually participate in races of different lengths. Today, I had a support of a friend who was also participating in the race with me “- shared the race winner.

Among women, the best finishing time of 1:13:58 was demonstrated by an athlete from Ethiopia – Belaynesh Beyene. She did not set the new track record taking 3 seconds longer to finish the course than Anna Nosenko did last year. This time Anna came to the starting line, but left the race because of injury. Sofiia Yaremchuk from Lviv finished second among women with the result of 1:15:04.   

Roman Romanenko and Sofiia Yaremchuk could not outdo the African athletes, but they won the Championship of Ukraine, which was held within Nova Poshta Kyiv Half Marathon for the first time.  

On April 9 the leaders of the race shared the prize fund in the amount of 146,000 UAH. The absolute winners, Ethiopian athletes, received 25,000 UAH each. Participation of foreign elite athletes in the race is one of the main requirements that organizers must meet in order to apply for Bronze Label from IAAF.

“This year we raise the status of Nova Poshta Kyiv Half Marathon 2017. On April 9 the event was attended by officials of IAAF, who will give an assessment of this event. If we meet all the standards, we will be certified and will receive the Bronze label. No race in Ukraine has ever received a Bronze Label from IAAF. We aspire to the highest level in the organization of the event, our models are Prague, Berlin, Boston Marathon, “- said General Manager of Run Ukraine Dmytro Chernitskyi.

Kyiv International half marathon has become a traditional for the city and its residents since for seven years in a row it brings together fans of running from around the world. Anyone can take part in the event regardless of age. This year, the oldest participant of the Nova Poshta Kyiv Half Marathon 2017 was the 76-year-old Ukrainian Oleksandr Volskyi among men and 75-year-old Adelheyda Strihalova from Belarus among women. Participation of these athletes only proves that age is no obstacle for running.

For the third year in a row “Nova Poshta” helps developing the running culture of Ukraine. In addition to the third half marathon in Kyiv, this year we also support 4 more race in Sumy, Poltava, Chernihiv, Cherkasy. For us it is important to implement projects that change lives of Ukrainians. It is always true about running events – every year the number of participants is growing, which means that more and more people choose a healthy lifestyle. This is the best motive to continue in 2018 “, – commented the co-founder of “Nova Poshta” Inna Popereshniuk.

In 2017, the participants were traditionally offered to choose one of the individual races: 21.0975 km, 10 km, 5 km and 2 km. In addition to individual races, Nova Poshta Kyiv Half Marathon 2017 included corporate and relay races. As in previous years, the organizers had nearly 1,000 kids of all ages in children’s races of 1,000 m, 500 m and 100 m. For the first time in the history of Kyiv half marathon, there was a family race of 2 km, which brought together 200 participants. In addition, for the first time personnel of security services (Security Cup – 5 km) and students (University Cup – 2 km) could participate for free.

This year, there was a 2 km charity race “Winners” in support of ATO veterans who had to undergo amputation, dedicated to the eponymous multimedia project of “1+1”. More than 900 race participants helped raise funds to purchase sports prostheses for combat veterans and thus give them a second chance at a new life. The curator of the “Winners” project, Solomiia Vitvitska also ran a the symbolic 2 km to support the guys. She was joined by a singer Svitlana Tarabarova, designer Andre Tan, a veteran Yevhen Terekhov and singer Natalka Karpa, Oksana Stebelska, Oleh Sobchuk, Arsen Mirzoyan and other famous Ukrainians. The Mayor of Kyiv – Vitalii Klitschko – also supported the participants of Kyiv half marathon and ran the charity 2 km “Winners” race.

“When you do sport, you get a huge boost of energy, you feel many emotions. Although I am a boxer in the past, sport is in my heart forever. The 2 km that I ran today is a charity course. It is important not to win but to participate. I wanted my example to show that Kyiv is a sports city. We will do everything possible to have major sporting and cultural events held in the capital city. I think we can hold the World Half Marathon Championship in Kyiv in 2020. We will fully support this, “- shared the Mayor of Kyiv.

On April 9, celebrities also participated in the race: Potap, Volodymyr Nechyporuk, Marichka Padalko, Vlasta Shovkovska, Pavlo Kazarin and others.

Most celebrity participants were fundraisers of the traditional “Fundraising Marathon” – the initiative which is supported by Ukrainian Filanthropic Marketplace and 10 charity funds: AntiAIDS, Tabletochki, Heart of Warrior, Zaporuka, Svichado, Everyone Can etc.  

This year, along the route of the event, there were 13 reanimobiles on duty, 26 members of the “Red Cross”, 15 rescuers of Maltese Aid Service, physicians of Kyiv association of the Union Samaritans of Ukraine and 6 crews of “MotoHelp”. Three race participants were hospitalized, they are safe now.

Nova Poshta Kyiv Half Marathon opened a series of events Run Ukraine Running League 2017, which unites five races in four cities of Ukraine. The event was held under the auspices of the Athletics Federation of Ukraine, Athletics Federation of Kyiv and Kyiv City State Administration.

Winners of “Nova Poshta Kyiv Half Marathon 2017

21.0975 km

Men:

  1. Lencho Anbesa (1:03:57) – the track record
  2. Szymon Kulka (1:04:47)
  3. Roman Romanenko (1:05:41)

Women:

  1. Belaynesh Beyene (1:13:58)
  2. Sofiia Yaremchuk (1:15:04)
  3. Vira Ovcharuk (1:16:19)

10 km

Men:

  1. Oleksii Obukhovskyi (31:45)
  2. Vitalii Marynych (34:01)
  3. Oleksandr Kryzhevych (34:32)

Women:

  1. Maryna Nemchenko (36:04)
  2. Viktoriia Nikolenko (42:46)
  3. Inna Ruliak (43:19)

5 km

Men:

1.Bohdan-Ivan Horodynskyi (14:49:01)

2.Iva Strebkov (14:49:27)

3 Roman Pasichnyk (14:55)

Women:

1.Hanna Ivashchuk (21:05)

2.Nataliia Saviuk (23:12)

3.Viktoriia Zavhorodnia (23:29)

The official website of the event: kyivhalfmarathon.org.

Title sponsor: Nova Poshta

General media partners: Kiss FM, TSN, winners, XXL

Main media partner: RBC-Styler

Media partners: Focus, HOCHU.ua, Meteoprog.ua, Uaua.info, Likar.info, Golos.ua  

Sports Media partners: XSPORT, Sport Arena

Contacts for the media:

Daria Savchenko

Mob. tel.: + 38067 209 57 54

email: [email protected]

Viktoriia Veremiienko

Mob. tel.: +380 67 995 27 67

email: [email protected]