Participants of the so-called VIP competition were the last to run at All-Russia’s Day of Jogging, Nations’ Cross-2007, in Luzhniki yesterday. The slogan reads: "Center of Physical Culture and Sport."
Photo: Grigoriy Sobchenko
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Campaigning On the Run
Moscow and 133 more cities and towns of Russia held yesterday All-Russia’s Day of Jogging – Nations’ Cross-2007. The event attracted over 1 million, while the prize fund reached 2 million rubles. The official target was to promote physical culture and healthy life-style, but the real purpose was evidently different – to hold a full-scale PR action for United Russia.
In Moscow, the cross-city race started in Luzhniki. The number of joggers exceeded 10,000, but not all of them were particularly willing to run from 4 kilometers to 12 kilometers depending on the age that Sunday.
It was the chief of Russia’s sport Vyacheslav Fetisov that opened the event. The end of his welcoming speech to participants is worth mentioning. “As long as we are united, we are unconquerable!” Fetisov was emphatic when repeating the election slogan of the country’s ruling United Russia Party to instruct the Moscow joggers.
“What the hell have they driven us here? No sleep at the sole weekend,” a crawling student jogger complained to his crawling mate during the race.
Participants of the so-called VIP competition were the last to start. Amid very important joggers were Fetisov, of course, former star of figure skating and today’s member of United Russia Irina Rodnina, United Russia’s legislator Vladimir Gruzdev and others. They ran 2,010 meters, finished in a friendly line and dedicated the effort to Moscow as the candidate for hosting Junior Olympics in 2010.
The event ended by awarding winners. The prize fund reached 2 million rubles, while the whole budget amounted to 215 million rubles, 15 percent provided by sponsors.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Sep. 17, 2007
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