Men’s Health Urbanathlon & Festival in St. Petersburg

The first Men’s Health Urbanathlon & Festival obstacle course race swept through the streets and parks of St. Petersburg on June 5. A perfect warm and sunny day aided and inspired the more than 500 contestant who turned out.

The first teams started out at 11:00 A.M. on the beach in front of the Peter and Paul Fortress. Participants had to complete six technical stages – barriers of different heights, an athletic maze, a shooting range, a rope ladder, a rock climbing wall and a rope bridge – and run a 15 km route. As expected, the winners were from both Moscow and St. Petersburg. In the men’s category, the Red Fox team of Vladimir Levchenko and Igor Klepcha from St. Petersburg took first place. The pair completed the entire route in just one hour 13 minutes. The husband and wife, Arena-Craft/MEI team of Alexei and Vera Ponomarev won the mixed pairs title with a time of one hour 29 minutes. Natalia Zimina and Irina Safronova of Moscow, also of the Arena-Craft team, took the honors in the women’s category with a finish time of one hour and 33 minutes.
The winning men’s team was awarded the grand prize – a one-week tour of New York and a competitor’s spot in the Men’s Health Urbanathlon & Festival USA to be held on October 29. The winning mixed team will receive a trip to Altai and the top women’s team will go to Montenegro to participate in Men’s Health Adventure tours and continue testing their strength and stamina. But most importantly, they will all have the satisfaction of experiencing unusual adventures and challenges. Men’s Health publisher Margarita Tyrina and editor-in-chief Kirill Vishnepolsky personally handed each of the winners their medals, prize certificates and other valuable gifts.

For guests and race fans, entertainment was provided on the beach in front of the Peter and Paul Fortress, with Reebok and Davidoff Champion handing out gifts to everyone present and instructors from the PhysCult chain of fitness centers leading a mass workout session right from the stage. The mountain climbing wall was also available for anyone interested. Representatives of Gore-Tex– makers of a unique membrane for athletic wear – invited onlookers to shower in the brand’s new collection to demonstrate its water-resistant qualities.

Music could also be heard throughout that sunny day on the beach. The program opened with DJ Vinilkin aka Mr. Meat. As evening approached, the groups Lumen (Ufa), Fairies Scream (St. Petersburg) and Pro.Obraz (St. Petersburg) performed. The Pompeya group of Moscow also presented their debut album Tropical.

At the conclusion of the event – attended by approximately 10,000 people – the organizers decided to hold another Men’s Health Urbanathlon & Festival this year. The exact date and location of the race will be announced in the August issue of Men’s Health.

The organizers of the Men’s Health Urbanathlon & Festival would like to thank business partners of the event: Reebok, the Davidoff Champion brand, the Gore-Tex brand, event insurer Twenty-First Century, the PhysCult chain of fitness centers, the Sports.ru Internet project, Maximum radio of St. Petersburg and Team Fabric that organized the race route.