Narva runners received good prizes, but the 82-year-old pensioner was left without a medal: Narva residents are discussing the “Night Run”

2023-12-07 15:00:28

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82-year-old Narva resident Nikolai sadly told Narvskaya Gazeta that although he had been preparing for the Estonian Night Run (Eesti ÖöJooks), which took place last Saturday, December 2, for almost a year and could show a good result, he was not able to register for the race.

Nikolai is an amateur athlete who is not a member of any clubs or societies, however, he has been running for a long time and this is not the first time he has participated in the Night Run.

“On the day of the race, I came to the sports store in Astri, where registration of participants was taking place, an hour and a half before the end of registration. But they told me that there were no more numbers left for runners, and they didn’t register me,” Nikolai told the newspaper.

Asked to step aside

But, despite the fact that he was not given a number, Nikolai decided to take part in the 5 km race for which he was preparing. And he showed a good result – 42 minutes. “But when I ran to the finish line, I was immediately asked to step aside, since I was unregistered,” Nikolai said. And the pensioner received neither a medal nor a prize. “I don’t have any complaints, I still really like Night Run.” But I would like to draw the organizers’ attention to this point: how to make sure that everyone can register for it. I was told that I had to register in advance on the Internet, but for me, like for many people my age, it is too difficult,” Nikolai explained why he decided to share his story.

Narvskaya Gazeta studied the conditions for registration for Eesti ÖöJooks on the official website of this event: indeed, it talks about the possibility of registering and obtaining a race participant number at the registration point and issuance of sports materials, that is, in this case, at Astri, but only if provided that at this time there are still free places.

The organizer of Eesti ÖöJooks is the NGO Rakvere Maraton. Its director, Marco Torm, with whom Narvskaya Gazeta shared this story, confirmed that every year more and more people want to take part in the Night Run in Narva; this year registration ended in November. By the way, Narva amateur runners, who usually register for the Night Run as soon as registration is announced, told NG about the same thing.

Registration ended in November

“In the first year, we tried to organize pre-registration not only online, but also on site, and we incurred such additional expenses. But it turned out that almost everyone registers online, and our service remained unclaimed. At the same time, for the safety of the race participants, it is important that there be a certain number of athletes on the track,” explained Marco Torm.

The Narvitians stood almost along the entire route, cheering and cheering on their own.

Expenses for prizes, gifts, medals, and sports numbers of participants are also planned in advance. “To the elderly gentleman, I sympathize and apologize. We will think about what can be done for elderly participants like him who are not able to register online,” Marco Torm told NG.

This year the Narvitians received prizes from the organizers of the Night Run for both speed and invention. Photo from the personal archive of Jana Heikinen

At the same time, he once again called on everyone who wants to participate in the race to register. “If an unregistered participant takes part in the race, we cannot not only track and register his result, but we will not always be able to come to his aid if necessary. We simply won’t know about it. It’s scary to imagine that in bad weather conditions like this year, for example, an elderly person could get injured, fall, and we wouldn’t even know about it,” explained Marco Torm.

Prizes for speed and creativity

But Narva residents also discussed many pleasant moments of the last Night Run, which became a bright, colorful spectacle that attracted hundreds of spectators on the central streets of Narva.

“The Narvians stood almost along the entire route, cheered, and cheered on their own,” Yana Heikinen told NG, who this year received the title of “Fastest Narvian” and a prize of 350 euros, showing the 5th result among the 10 km race. women – 49 minutes and 27 seconds. Let us note that Yana is an amateur athlete, and many professional athletes also participate in the “Night Run”. Yana is one of the founders of a small community of joggers for fun, Run for Fun. According to her, the “Night Run”, which began to be held in Narva relatively recently, is now a folk race as popular in Narva and Estonia as, for example, the folk races in Tartu and Riga, in which members of the Run for Fun group also constantly participate .

The 5 km costume race gives the Night Run a bright spectacle. Two Run for Fun participants also distinguished themselves in this race and received prizes for the best costumes. These were two Narva teachers, Maria Samburenko and Maria Svetlyshenko, who created costumes based on Hoffmann’s famous fairy tale “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King”.

Marco Torm told NG that the organizers of the Night Run in Narva consider it important for athletes and amateurs from all over Estonia to participate in the national race, because it provides additional income to hotels and catering establishments and supports entrepreneurs in the tourism sector. “But it is no less important for us that the “Night Run” becomes a part of life for the Narva residents themselves, and the fact that there is a lot of positive feedback, of course, cannot but rejoice,” Marco Torm told NG, emphasizing that this the event would not have been possible without the support of the Integration Fund.

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