More than seven thousand runners and joggers took part in the Moscow race, the youngest aged five, and the oldest 74, Tatiana Prikhodko, chief race secretary, said to RIA Novosti, proceeding from preliminary statistics. There were students of children's and youth sport schools, limited-abilities athletes, and lots of amateurs.
The contestants were offered varying distances, from one kilometre to ten. One race had a symbolic distance of 2,012 metres in honour of Moscow's bid to host the 2012 Olympics. Promoting the bid were athletic celebrities-Vyacheslav Fetisov, unforgettable ice hockey star; Valentin Balakhnichev, All-Russia Field and Track Federation president; renowned figure skater Irina Rodnina, thrice Olympic champion; and Dmitri Svatkovsky, Olympic pentathlon champion. Many journalists covered and promoted the event.
Each runner received a souvenir postcard, which was also a lottery ticket, so prizes went not to race winners alone but to lucky ticket holders.
Many commercial events accompanied the race. The returns will come for athletic equipment to go to secondary schools of tragedy-stricken Beslan, Tatiana Podorozhnaya, competition manager, said to RIA Novosti.
"Sport vs. Terror," was the day's motto throughout Russia.
