UIPM 2018 Global Laser-Run City Tour: Rain can’t dampen spirits in Zhitomir (UKR)

Two of the first three Global Laser-Run City Tours in Ukraine have been marked by a number of common features. Hundreds of people participating in a parkland venue, entrants drawn from all over the country, strong organization … and heavy rain.

After wet weather greeted participants in Kiev in 2017, and the latest City Tour in Zhitomir on June 23 was also affected by high rainfall – but it did not deter anyone involved from enjoying a spectacular day of Laser-Run.

More than 300 participants aged from nine to 60 came from different regions – Kiev, Donetsk, Kharkiv and elsewhere – to test their Laser-Run skills in Baron de Shoduare Park, demonstrating a major appetite for the UIPM’s fastest-growing sport in Ukraine.  

"It is not an easy sport, because it combines incompatible skills and requires accuracy, dynamic, speed and body activation at the same time,” said Valerii Kirilovich, President of the regional Modern Pentathlon federation in Zhitomir.

“This is the first time our city has organized such a high-level competition. I would like to thank the President of the Ukrainian Modern Pentathlon Federation, Igor Panin, for his help to introduce our city to the UIPM Global Laser-Run City Tour together with such big cities in Ukraine like Kiev, Kharkiv and Dnipro.”

President Panin added: “To organize such a competition is a very interesting and very difficult task at the same time. "It is a very big responsibility, because of the image of our federation, we must provide the Laser-Run competition at the highest standard, approved by UIPM.

“For the second year in the row we are organizing Laser-Run City Tours in Ukraine. The competition in Zhitomir looked like the first competition in Kiev because of the location (city park) and very difficult weather conditions (heavy rain). But I would like to say that the Zhitomir Modern Pentathlon Federation passed this test and provided a very high-level competition.”   

The UIPM Sports community in Ukraine will be hoping for more of the same – and perhaps a little less rain – when the GLRCT circuit moves on to Dnipro on 8 September and Kharkiv on 23 September for two more events.

The UIPM Global Laser-Run City Tour was created in 2017 to deliver an exciting, dynamic and fun competition to participants of all ages and offer them an entry point to UIPM Sports.

The Global LRCT took place in parks, stadiums and iconic urban venues in 60 cities around the world in 2017, with more than 15,000 participants. There are about 100 events scheduled in 2018.

Have you liked the UIPM Laser-Run Facebook page yet?