UIPM 2019 Global Laser Run City Tour: Rural schoolchildren join the party in Molodechno (BLR)

The Pentathlon movement in Belarus is buzzing right now.

Not only have Belarusian pentathletes won the women’s world title two years in a row, not to mention women’s team gold in 2019, but there is more excitement on the horizon as the UIPM 2021 Pentathlon and Laser Run World Championships has been awarded to Minsk (BLR).

At grassroots level, the feelgood factor was tangible when the Central Stadium of Molodechno hosted the final instalment of Belarus’s 2019 Global Laser Run City Tour series.

The event formed part of the Spartakiad festival, which enabled children from rural areas in Belarus and Russia to participate in sport in celebration of the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Belarus.

The schoolchildren enjoyed their first taste of UIPM’s most popular development sport and received souvenir packages, with the most successful participants awarded medals and diplomas.

The tournament was attended by athletes born in 2006/2007 as well as adult athletes from Belarus and Russia.

Mikhail Prokopenko, Chairman of the Belarusian Federation of Modern Pentathlon, said: “This tournament ended the first Laser Run City Tour series in our country, hosted in four great Belarusian cities of sport – Vitebsk, Grodno, Brest and Molodechno.

“We are very happy to stage this kind of competition, where every athlete can try to become a member of our great Modern Pentathlon family and begin their pathway to a Pentathlon future, not only in regions but across the whole country and abroad.

“We are going to continue hosting these events in 2020 in order to introduce the wonderful world of Modern Pentathlon to young Belarusians.”

The Global Laser Run City Tour was created in 2017 to provide an entry point to UIPM Sports for people of all ages in urban communities around the world.

Another 100 cities were selected in 2019 as hosts of the GLRCT or the Biathle-Triathle National Tour. The full calendar for 2020 can be viewed at the UIPM website, where you can also find more information on UIPM’s various multi-discipline sports.

In September 2019, the UIPM Laser Run World Championships was incorporated into the Pentathlon World Championships for the first time in Budapest (HUN), where Laser Run also featured as a showcase sport at the 1st World Urban Games.

In December 2019, Laser Run and Triathle both featured for the first time in the 30th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in the Philippines.

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