FIRST POETIC MARATHON IN YEKATERINBURG CLAIMS RECORD

MOSCOW, October 8 (RIA Novosti) - The Fall Marathon, a unique action organized by the Sverdlovsk branch of the Russian Writers' Union was held in the Yekaterinburg Writers' House. Poets from all over Russia kept reciting their poems for five days round-the-clock without having any sleep, Rossiiskaya Gazeta said. The event was dedicated to the 70th anniversary of the Writers' Union.

All in all, 349 poets from Ural cities, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Magadan, Omsk, etc. took part in the marathon.

The rules were tough. One poet could recite his verses several times but could not repeat one and the same poem. One participant broke this rule and was removed by strict observers. The pause between recitals should be no more than one minute (time enough to hand the microphone to next participant) and between poems - only five second. Poets used to support each other in case if someone forgot his verses, was at a loss or even lost conscience.

Representatives of the Guinness Book of World Records came to the Urals to control the purity of the experiment and to fix the record. The Fall Marathon has a chance to be included not into the Russian Book of Records "Lefthander" but also to the Guinness Book because such events have never been held before.

Inspired by the success, organizers plan to make the marathon a tradition and spend 130 hours at reciting poems in 2005.