Wings for Life: charity run set to bring thousands to Kakheti province

Georgia will join Wings for Life, a global charity run held in hundreds of locations across the world, for the sixth time when participants gather at the start line in the sunlit eastern province of Kakheti on Sunday.

Professional and amateur runners will also be joined by wheelchair participants on the customary route that boasts a picturesque backdrop of Caucasus mountain chain.

Those who don the tracksuits and receive their participant numbers on the start will then kick off the run 30 minutes before a vehicle known as the Catcher Car begins its movement on the route.

Advancing with constant speed, the car will catch up to runners, signifying their end of the run. The final participant to be “caught” will be declared the winner.

As many as 7,000 participants turned up in the vineyard-strewn setting of Kakheti last year, with similar numbers expected after a three-month registration period.

Earlier this year organisers revealed a roster of ambassadors for the 2019 run in Georgia, which included wo service members of Georgian armed forces, a rescuer from the country’s Emergency Management Service and an award-winning teacher.

The Kakheti route has the Caucasus mountain chain as its backdrop. Photo: Wings for Life World Run.

The ambassadors are:

• Lieutenant Colonel Besarion Ghudushauri, who served in the Georgian armed forces during the 2008 Russian-Georgian War and in the NATO peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan between 2013-2014. Ghudushauri also worked as Deputy Defence Attache of Georgia to the Baltic states and claimed two gold medals of the Invictus Games international competition in Canada and Australia;
• Corporal Giorgi Jabakhidze, a service member of the 4th Mechanised Brigade of the Georgian armed forces who fought in the 2008 conflict and claimed two Invictus Games gold medals between 2017-2018;
• Aleksandre Shukvani, a fire rescuer who saved a nine-month-old infant from fire in Tbilisi last year;
• Vladimer Apkhazava, a teacher awarded the 2017 National Teacher Prize in Georgia and nominated for this year’s Global Teacher Prize.

The Wings for Life charity was designed to raise funds for spinal cord injury research, with all of entrance fees going towards the charity goal.

Promoted as a “life-changing, global movement”, this year’s run will be held on May 5.