#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. The second extreme cross-country race NORILSK TRAIL was held in Taimyr, organized by the Norilsk Development Agency (NDA) together with the Smart Action team with the support of Norilsk Nickel and the municipality.
More than 150 athletes and trail running enthusiasts from 19 cities of the country, including Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk, Dudinka, took part in the race.
Thrill-seekers had to overcome one of four distances through the Haraelah mountains of the Putorana plateau: 7, 15, 30 or 50 kilometers. This year, very young athletes also had the opportunity to try themselves in the trail: at the foot of the Putorana mountains, they ran the Lemming distance of 1000 meters.
“The history of NORILSK TRAIL began in 2019, when local trailrunners Demyan Bulavinets and Yury Engelgardt first came to the NDA with the idea of creating a community of cross-country runners in the city.
In 2020, we joined forces with the Smart Action team, and this is how the first NORILSK TRAIL festival appeared, which brought together about 40 participants in 2022. And now, a year later, their number has almost quadrupled – this is an excellent result”, said Anastasia Korol, the NDA deputy director for tourism development.
Vyacheslav Gimranov from Krasnoyarsk became the winner at a distance of 50 kilometers with a result of 5 hours 34 minutes and 31 seconds. Norilsk resident Anton Zaidulin finished first at a distance of 30 kilometers – his result was 3 hours 28 minutes and 37 seconds. And Andrey Stepanov from Norilsk won the 15 km race with the result of 1 hour 53 minutes and 50 seconds. At a distance of 7 kilometers, which gathered the largest number of runners, Dmitry Badmaev won – 37 minutes and 2 seconds.
For the extreme race fans and guests, there was a food court with northern dishes, such as Miner ice cream and venison soup, as well as oriental dishes.
The local music band RED O pleased the race guests with a beautiful performance. The sports festival ended with a concert by Anton Tokarev, who performed his cover hit The Seventh Petal and sang along with the Norilsk people, out of the stage.
“We always try to create events for a wide audience, so that it would be interesting for both athletes and guests of the competition. NORILSK TRAIL is one of such sports events this summer. Quite recently Dudinka hosted a round of the X-WATERS Yenisey World Championship in open water swimming. And in two weeks, the Lama lake will host the Putorana Depth 2023 freediving championship. Norilsk residents are becoming more and more sporty, and the city itself is becoming more interesting not only for tourists, but also for residents. This greatly helps the territory development”, says Maxim Mironov, the NDA director.
Earlier, we wrote that the visitor center construction had been completed on lake Lama, and the first Russian tourists visited the unique route Hatanga – Severnaya Zemlya.
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Text: Angelica Stepanova, Photo: Dmitry Arsentiev / Norilsk Development Agency
