THE GREAT RUSSIAN RACE

The Great Russian Race is a relay run across Russia on route from Vladivostok to St. Petersburg, covering 11,000 km in three months over the summer of 2005. The Race is a unique sporting event which will also serve charitable purposes. As well as being one of the longest relay runs in history, the Race will also be one of the most challenging.

The route is divided into 15 relay sectors, each 700-750 km long. Each sector is covered in one week by alternating athletes who run about 20 km a day. Two British and two Russian teams of six runners are allocated for each sector. It is planned that almost 300 runners will participate officially, and it is also expected that they will be joined at different stages by celebrities, officials and members of the general public in the Russian regions.

It is hoped that as a result of the Race at least $250,000 will be raised for the benefit of abandoned, orphaned and homeless children of Russia. According to the official statistics, there are over two million of such children. The funds will come from both individual donations and corporate sponsorships and will be distributed to Russian care institutions through Charities Aid Foundation (CAF). Both CAF and Race organisers are currently making every effort to ensure that the actual distribution of collected funds in the regions coincides in time with the Race taking place there.

The driving force behind the Great Russian Race is the World Race Trust, a charitable organisation which was involved in the Athens Centenary Marathon in 1996 and the Island Race (7,000 km) in the UK in 2000. Trustees include Lord Sebastian Coe and Sir Roderic Lyne, previous British Ambassador to Russian Federation. In Russia, the partner and co-organiser of the Race is Dmitry Shparo and his non-profit organisation Adventure Club.

The Race has already been granted full official support from the Russian authorities, including the Federal Agency of Sports, All-Russia Athletics Federation and governors of all Russian regions where the Race will take place. It is expected that some Russian officials and politicians will actually run themselves, even it only symbolically.

Even at the preparation stage, the event is already attracting a lot of attention from the media in Russia. Amongst others, major terrestrial sports channel TV-Sport and the biggest selling Russian daily newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda have already confirmed their participation as information sponsors. In Britain, the official partner of the Race is "Runners World" magazine.

The Principal Sponsor of the event is Old Spice (Procter & Gamble). Many other companies are involved as sector sponsors and sponsors in kind. Amongst those already confirmed are DHL, Peter Hambro Mining, Campbell Lutyens & Co, Pilkington Glass, Renaissance Capital, KPMG, British Airways, Landrover, MTS and Reebok. The British Embassy in Russia is also closely involved, co-sponsoring the last sector of the Race and hosting receptions for the Race in the consulates along the route.

At the moment, the organisers are focussing on runners' recruitment, which is due to be completed by the end of March. From February till May, the complex logistics of the event will be finalised and on May 28, 2005, The Great Russian Race will start!

You can see the latest news and photographs of the Great Russian Race
at the site: www.theworldrace.com