The 5-kilometre Colour Run, a rehearsal for the Moscow Marathon, gathered more than 7,000 runners on Sunday. The event featured well-known athletes -- twice Olympic champions in figure skating Tatiana Volosozhar and Maxim Trankov, and leaders of the national snowboarding team, Vic Wild and Alena Zavarzina.
The Colour Run is a most spectacular stage of the Moscow Marathon. At every one-kilometre passage, the runners were powdered in different colours, and fireworks welcomed runners at the finish line, reports Tass news agency.
Moscow Marathon Director Dmitry Tarasov said every year the organisers register growing numbers of participants.
"The tendency of bigger audience has changed -- most participants are now running professionally, as they had become fans of this sport. Now we have stable audience, half of which changes for the Colour Run every year," he said.
"The competition is now of high quality, we have more partners, and thus we are growing and developing. As for the Colour Run, we want to be like a US race, which unites 20,000 runners. This is a dream, of course, maybe it will not come true, but every year we set high objectives to develop the competition not only in quantity, but also in quality."
The series of monthly events began in April by the first 5-km run, and a half-marathon in Moscow was in May. A Night Run for 10 kilometres is due on July 15, and the Luzhniki Run is set for August 13. The Moscow Marathon is planned for September 24.
--IANS
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