About a thousand participants gathered “Cross of Nation” in Petrozavodsk

On Saturday, September 17, Petrozavodsk hosted the most massive running event in the country – “Cross of the Nation”. The sports event was organized by the Ministry of Education and Sports of Karelia and the Karelian Regional Athletics Federation.

The Republic holds the “Cross of Nation” for the 16th time, residents of all regions take part in the sports festival. The center of large-scale events was, of course, the capital of Karelia, where the race was held for the first time on the embankment of Lake Onega.

Alexander Bakanchuk, Deputy Director of the Republican Center for Sports Training, told our publication that the comfort of the participants is important for the organizers, so it was decided to leave the previous place – the Spartak Stadium – and move the race to the embankment. A weighty argument for holding a cross-country race near Lake Onega was the quality of the road surface on the embankment: the tracks are flat and wide. Although some participants noted that it was harder to run along the part of the distance where the paving stones were laid than on the asphalt.

Petrozavodsk residents from young to old took part in the cross-country race, in total the event gathered about a thousand athletes and amateurs. Starts for different age groups were given from 10 am. After the awarding of the winners and the grand opening of the “Cross of the Nation”, at 12 o’clock, mass races took place without regard to time. First, preschoolers overcame a distance of 500 meters, and then everyone came to a distance of 1900 meters. Mayor of Petrozavodsk Vladimir Lyubarsky together with Petrosoviet deputy Timur Zornyakov also wanted to take part in the mass run.

Various sports interactive platforms worked at the holiday. Residents of Petrozavodsk could test themselves in passing the TRP standards and orienteering in the labyrinth. Doctors explained to the citizens the basics of cardiopulmonary resuscitation, and residents tested the acquired skills on a special medical mannequin.