The first international charity race in the history of Uzbekistan was held in Samarkand

1,176 people from 25 countries ran three half-marathon distances: 21 km, 10 km and 2 km. This was one of the largest sports projects in the country, featuring a working group of 80 people, 57 judges, 300 volunteers and more than 5 hours of live coverage on national television and social networks of the Samarkand Half Marathon. The winners of the half-marathon in the main distance were our compatriots Shokhrukh Davlatov and Nurkhon Muhiddinova, each of them receiving a prize of 12,000,000 soums. The total prize Fund amounted to 102,000,000 soums.

Next year, the project will be able to accept more than 5,000 runners. For this purpose, there is now a ready-made infrastructure and team of specialists to organize the event: the Art and Culture Development Foundation under the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Uzbekistan. Preparations for the next half-marathon in Samarkand are starting now.

The Samarkand Half Marathon is not just a race, but a whole festival of modern culture. As part of the half-marathon, an international conference dedicated to the issue of inclusion in cultural institutions was held, as well as the first tactile exhibition in the history of Uzbekistan. Joint screenings of documentaries and performances by international and Uzbek musicians were organized alongside the Beat Film Festival.

The charity goal of the project will begin to be implemented this year. To do this, equipment will be purchased and an educational program prepared for the country's theaters, which will allow them to show performances with audio description. In addition, the organizer of the race, The Art and Culture Development Foundation under the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Uzbekistan, will present a preliminary plan for organizing an inclusive environment inside and outside cultural institutions in Uzbekistan.

Aziz Abdukhakimov, Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Uzbekistan

“Right now, the government of Uzbekistan is developing a long-term program aimed at solving the problem of accessibility and inclusiveness in the country's cultural institutions. The half-marathon in Samarkand is the first step that will draw public attention to this problem. Thanks to this project, millions of people in our country and around the world have already learned about the stated theme of the race. And hundreds of them will come to Uzbekistan to take a direct part in the charity component of the project. We will make every effort to make the half marathon in Samarkand an annual tradition. I am sure that thanks to the Samarkand Half Marathon, the city itself will become more accessible and open every year. See you in Samarkand on November 3!”

Saida Mirziyoyeva, Deputy Director of the Agency of Information and Mass Communications under the Administration of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan

“The Samarkand Half Marathon brings to the masses the idea of an active lifestyle and supports the good goal of making culture accessible to everyone, including people with disabilities.

“The Agency for Information and Mass Communications fully supports the initiative of the Art and Culture Development Foundation under the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Uzbekistan. Let me remind you that our Agency is also working in this direction. In 2019, we developed a roadmap for the Ko'ngil Ko'zi project. It involves concrete actions to further the social adaptation of people with disabilities, providing blind and visually-impaired people with educational, artistic, scientific and other literature.

“Supporting charitable projects related to inclusion and creating an inclusive environment is a big task. There should be more of these types of events and programs. We all have the same goal – to ensure full social integration and create equal and favorable conditions for all people living in our country.

“I express my gratitude to everyone who takes part in and supports the half marathon in Samarkand, and I sincerely wish that there will be more such large-scale initiatives!”

Gayane Umerova, Deputy Executive Director of the Art and Culture Development Foundation under the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Uzbekistan

"The Samarkand Half Marathon is a good example of how organizations and people from completely different fields of activity and countries can collaborate and create new products. We have received expert support from international cultural institutions – they will help the Art and Culture Development Foundation under the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Uzbekistan to develop a long-term strategy for creating an inclusive environment at cultural sites. We were supported by government agencies and large companies in Uzbekistan, and these resources allowed us to develop an international project and tell as many people as possible about the big idea behind this race.

“All this is very inspiring for us to continue our work. At the end of the year, we will publish a preliminary plan to create an accessible environment around and within cultural institutions in Uzbekistan. This is a complex process that involves not only rebuilding infrastructure but also creating long-term educational and cultural projects. And the Samarkand half marathon is just one of the elements in this process."

Mirkhan Sagitov, curator of the Samarkand Half Marathon project:

"As a participant in many marathons and half-marathons held abroad, I can say with confidence that the route of the half–marathon in Samarkand is one of the most beautiful and interesting from a sporting point of view. Throughout the entire route, participants of the race saw all the key sights of the city. The half-marathon itself begins next to the famous Registan ensemble. The half-marathon track is certified by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) and the Association of International Marathons and Runs (AIMS).

“All participants of the race who met the time limit for each distance received commemorative finishers' medals. And each registered participant got a T-shirt from the race, a branded bag, a number with a chip that will allow you to get the exact finish time. A prize fund was established for the winners, and men and women in the standings from 1st to 3rd place were awarded with cash prizes. More information about prizes and race rules can be found on our website.

“Our event was advised by the international company Russia Running, which includes specialists with extensive experience in organizing modern running events. The entire team of organizers of the half-marathon worked to provide maximum service and comfortable conditions for the participants of the race. We made sure that each participant could get the maximum positive impression from the Samarkand Half Marathon."

Madina Badalova, head of the Education Development Department of the Foundation for the Development of Culture and Art under the Ministry of Culture:

"This is the first charity event of this scale in our country. In addition to the race itself, we held a number of cultural events in Samarkand, and most importantly – we have a big goal. This is about attracting public attention to the problem of inclusion in cultural institutions. Our Foundation has initiated a long-term program aimed at modernizing cultural institutions in Uzbekistan. In particular, this year the Foundation has initiated the draft regulation “On improving the work of museums in the Republic of Uzbekistan taking into account inclusion”, which covers not only logistical accessibility in museums, but also the development of special programs for mobile populations, and the training and implementation of new technologies such as tactile models, audio description and induction loops for those with mobility issues. To begin with, we have conducted monitoring and training in institutions of Tashkent. The results of this research were presented in the form of a report as part of the educational program of the half-marathon and will be published on the internet.

“The Foundation continues its cooperation with the Museum of Modern Art nicknamed ‘Garage’ – our Russian colleagues have conducted workshops and lectures on international experiences that have created an inclusive environment in cultural institutions. In addition, as part of the half–marathon, we started working with another important organization: the Beat Films film festival. The festival curators will give a lecture in Tashkent on how they created an independent cultural institution at an international level on their own and will show two documentaries. One of these films, Free Solo, won an Academy Award this year."

Furkat Palvan-Zadeh, Curator of External Communications and Cultural Program for the Samarkand Half Marathon:

"This is my first project in Uzbekistan. I hope that this race will be held every year in Samarkand and will become an important part of the city's culture. We have attracted specialists from Uzbekistan, Russia, Georgia, and Kyrgyzstan to work on the Samarkand Half Marathon, so it has turned out to be a real cultural exchange. Artists from Uzbekistan, Finland, Germany, Turkey, and Russia took part in the musical component of the program. I really hope that next year everything will be at the same high level."

Alexandra Filippovskaya, Coordinator of the Department of Inclusive Programs at the "Garage" Museum of Contemporary Art:

“The ‘Garage’ Museum has been striving to make itself accessible to people with disabilities from the very beginning of its existence. This is a complex process that requires a lot of effort and time. The problem of inclusion in cultural institutions includes not only the infrastructure around and inside buildings but also the competence and skill of employees of cultural institutions. We know that the Ministry of Culture of Uzbekistan is planning a long-term program that will solve the problem of accessibility in museums and theaters in the country for everyone. I really hope that the educational events that we held in Samarkand will help our colleagues from Uzbekistan to detail their long-term plans in this direction."

Alena Bocharova, Co-founder of Beat Film Festival:

"We are very happy to be able to show our films in Uzbekistan. One of them –Free to Run– is directly related to running and creating an entire urban community around this topic. In addition, we will meet with students of the University of Westminster in Tashkent and talk about how to create cultural projects in the city. Ten years ago, we teamed up to create the Beat Film Festival. At that time, it was a niche festival of documentary films about music, and today it is the largest international documentary film festival in Russia, which annually attracts 30,000 viewers in Moscow at the junction of spring and summer. In the fall the same number of people in 15 cities of Russia take part in the regional review Beat Weekend. We very much hope that our story will inspire university students and they will see that it is also possible to create sustainable and large-scale enterprises in the field of culture."

#samarkandhalfmarathon

Organizers:

Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Uzbekistan

The Art and Culture Development Foundation under the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Uzbekistan

General partners:

Agency of Information and Mass Communications under the Administration of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan

Ko'ngil Ko'zi social project

State Committee of the Republic of Uzbekistan for Tourism Development

Hokimiyat of the Samarkand region

Partners:

Uzbekistan Triathlon Federation

Beat Films