Today a traditional charitable race for 10 km has been held in the Park of the First President. It was organized by British-Kazakh Society (BKS) with the support of Almaty akimat. The history of charitable races organized by BKS is very long. The races are held in Astana, Almaty and London. The airline company "Air Astana" has traditionally become the sponsor of the race. The charitable race was also supported by RG Brands with a trademark Asu, the Confederation of combat sports and power sports, fitness club World Class, School of Nordic Walking Eurasia, Sweets confectionary and Restaurant Complex Palladium. NE.FM radio and magazine ELLE became the media partners of this event.

According to the race results 2,133,846 tenge were collected. This money will spent on equipping the ophthalmologist’s cabinet in the special (correctional) nursery garden №124 of Almaty city for children with visual impairments and severe speech disorders within the project «Cabinet of Vision Protection". 90 children live and study in this child care institution. Among them there are 45 children with severe speech disorders and 45 children with varying severity degrees of visual disorders: blind (sightless) children, visually-impaired children and children with amblyopia and strabismus. In the kindergarten the children receive intensive complex treatment and correctional - educational support, therefore they are in special need of having a cabinet of sight protection the cost of which amounts to 1 474 000 tenge.

114 people have registered at the race in Almaty. Only 47 people from this number took part in the race. In our opinion, the reason for such a low attendance was caused by 2 factors: the first – it was necessary to come to the start at 7 a.m. in the morning to participate fully in the warm-up before the race, and the second factor – a sky overcasted with thick clouds scared many potential runners by cold rain. By the way, it started raining only during the award ceremony, i.e., in fact, at the end of the event.

This year the charitable BKS race was opened in the Republic of Kazakhstan by the Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of Great Britain Dr. Carolyn Brown. In addition, the famous Kazakhstani athletes such as Rasul Kaliyev, Daniyal Hajiyev, Nazim Kyzaybay, Askhat Zhitkeev, Marian Urdabaeva, Gulzhan Isanova, Feruza Ergeshova, Tatiana Kapustina, Mikhail Makeyev, Demeu Zhadraev, Dauren Zhumagazy and Askhat Dilmuhamedov have become traditional guests. The celebrities of Kazakh sport held the photo and autograph sessions with all interested runners and spectators.

Alexey Sidorenko, Dauren Zhartybaev and Matthew Eston won the first, second and third places respectively in the men’s category. In the women’s category Nazir Alisultanova won the first place, the second place was taken by Alfiya Dilmuhamedova and Diane Valiulina stood on the honorable third place. The main prize for the winners was the certificate of the airline company "Air Astana" on the flight in any direction. The winners of the second place were awarded with certificates for the preparation of birthday cake at Sweets confectionery and they were also given a food set for the marathon. Those participants who took the third place received a mug with symbols of London Underground as a present. The women got a pleasant bonus in the form of an annual subscription to the ELLE magazine. All race participants received a T-shirt and souvenirs from the event.

We thank all participants and supporters of the charitable BKS race!

 Download all images