ASTANA – A flash-mob marathon celebrating the 550th anniversary of the Kazakh Khanate was organised Jan. 31 by the Astana Akimat (city administration) and the Kazakhstan Amateur Triathlon Federation, reported the Astana Akimat press service.
photo from astana.gov.kz
“The capital was the first city to host an event dedicated to this date. During the year, we will carry out many similar mass sports events involving both well-known athletes and sports fans of the capital,” said Samat Kabdulin, deputy head of the Astana Department of Tourism, Physical Culture and Sports.
Five-hundred-fifty people participated in the marathon,including youth, public leaders, ministry and agency officials, bloggers and media figures, as well as citizens. They conquered the symbolic distance of 550 metres devoted to the anniversary date.
In an Oct. 22 announcement, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev noted the anniversary of Kazakh statehood in 2015, stressing that “in 1465, [Kazakh khans] Kerey and Zhanibek created the first khanate and it is to that time that [Kazakh statehood traces its roots]. Perhaps it was not a state in the modern sense of this term, within the present borders and without fame and prestige in the world. But these words can be said about all of the other states of that era. The important element is that the foundation was laid and we are the followers of the great deeds of our ancestors.”
The event was also attended by Deputy Akim (Mayor) of the capital Yermek Amanshayev and a delegation of world-famous athletes headed by triathlon federation president Muratkhan Tokmadi and vice-presidents Maksut Zhumayev and Marat Zhylanbayev. Zhumayev is a legendary Kazakh mountain climber, captain of the Kazakh team and the first Kazakh to conquer all 14 mountains of 8,000 metres or higher in the world. Zhylanbayev is the only person in the world to run through the largest deserts in Asia, Africa, Australia and the United States and has been included seven times in the Guinness Book of World Records.
